


sweating our confessions

by callistawolf



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Green Arrow (Arrow TV 2012), Alternative Universe - No Island, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Shameless Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:47:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 48,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24075433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callistawolf/pseuds/callistawolf
Summary: On the heels of failed relationships, Oliver and Felicity meet and become close friends almost immediately. There's also a heaping dose of sexual attraction for both of them. Can they scratch their respective itches while maintaining the friendship? The bigger question should be: can they sleep together without falling in love and risking the best friendship either of them has ever had?
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Comments: 292
Kudos: 771





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The biggest of thanks goes to @andachippedcup who tirelessly cheered on this fic from concept through completion (even offering up her beta services!). None of this would have been writing much less posted without her. I also want to shout out to @lexiblackbriar for being encouraging and wonderful as well. Writers supporting writers! These two ladies are the best. 
> 
> Yes, there's a fair amount of smut in this story. This is your warning. 
> 
> The first chapter is rather short but it establishes where these two are coming from. This story was heavily influenced by the movie "Friends With Benefits", starring Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. I obviously deviate from it in some fairly significant ways but if you've seen it, you might recognize how this story begins. 
> 
> Without further ado... let's go!

_Six months ago..._

“This isn’t working.”

Oliver Queen looked down at the front of his pants, on reflex. “What?”

Helena heaved a dramatic sigh. “Not that. This.” She gestured between them, where they were sitting on the sofa in her sky-rise apartment. The lights of the city twinkled in the gathering darkness through the windows behind her. They were supposed to go to a charity auction but Oliver had been doing his best to convince her to stay in instead.

“Are you trying to say you’d rather go to a stodgy charity auction rather than fool around here at your place?” he asked her skeptically.

Retrieving a compact from her purse on the coffee table in front of them, Helena fixed her smeared lipstick. “No, Oliver, that’s not what I’m saying.”

Oliver blew a frustrated breath out through his nose as he sat back on the sofa. “Are you going to tell me or do I have to guess?”

“I’m tired of this, Oliver. You never want to go out on the town as a couple anymore. Not that you ever really did. Honestly, thinking back, the only times we really went out anywhere remotely high profile, it was because I’d begged and made a fuss about it.”

“That’s not true,” Oliver protested. “Just last week we went to the movies, remember?”

Helena rolled her eyes, her thick, dark lashes fluttering against her pale cheeks. “Not the same thing. Sitting in the dark for two hours is not exactly being seen in public.”

“I took you to my parents house for dinner,” he pointed out.

“Three months ago.”

He squinted at her, filing through his memory. “That can’t be right.”

“Trust me. It is.”

Grumbling, he stood up from the sofa. Make-out time was over, it seemed. “Fine, if it’ll make you happy, we’ll go to the auction.”

“I’ve changed my mind,” she said sharply, getting up as well, gathering her purse.

“Oh my god,” he grumbled. “Will you make up your mind?”

“I haven’t changed my mind,” Helena clarified. “I’m saying I think we’re over.”

What the fuck? “Because I don’t take you in public??”

“That’s a symptom, yes. It’s just… it’s time to end it.”

“End it.”

“Yes.” She flipped her long, straight brown hair over her shoulder and met him with a steady gaze. He started to get the impression she’d thought of this before this moment.

“Just like that, you’re ending our relationship,” he said, still trying to keep up with this evening’s turn of events.

“It’s not a relationship unless there’s emotional intimacy, Oliver. You can’t call it a relationship with all you want to do is hit the bullseye and take off again. This isn’t archery.”

Oliver bristled. “That’s not all I do.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Tell me this. If we’d kept doing what we were doing, making out on my sofa, and we inevitably fell into bed and had wild passionate sex the rest of the night, would you have spent the night? Or would you have left for your own apartment right after?”

“Helena—“

“Just answer the question, Oliver.”

“It wouldn’t have been right after,” he protested weakly.

“Would you have stayed the night?”

“No,” he finally admitted. He cut off Helena before she could speak again. “But I have a meeting in the morning. I need a fresh suit to wear into the office and I like my own shower and you know I like to go for a run really early. I wouldn’t have wanted to wake you up that early.”

“Yes, I’m sure that’s why,” she scoffed, sounding tired. She turned and walked towards the kitchen. She plucked his wool overcoat from where he’d dropped it when he’d arrived twenty minutes earlier. She held them out to him but Oliver made no move to take them from her.

“So that’s it? You’re going to break up with me because you think I’m emotionally unavailable?”

“I don’t think you are, Oliver, I know you are. I’m getting older and have no interest in playing around anymore. I want someone who is willing to be serious about a relationship and a life together. That’s not you.”

Well, that was certainly true. Oliver wasn’t interested in marrying Helena but that was because he wasn’t interested in marrying anyone. He was still technically in his twenties, for another couple months anyhow, and enjoying himself. There was plenty of time to worry about settling down and, if he was honest with himself, Helena probably wasn’t who he would choose even if he was ready.

Sighing, he took his coat. “Alright. I’ll go. But if you change your mind—“

“I won’t change my mind, Oliver.” She opened her door for him and he walked through, feeling more than a little rankled.

“Goodbye, Helena.”

“Bye, Oliver.” The door shut in his face.

***

“So you’re back on the market!” Tommy cried when Oliver met him for drinks and told him the news about Helena dumping him.

Oliver grumbled and took a long drink of his beer. “I suppose.”

“Where’s the enthusiasm? Listen, I can think of at least five clubs and eight bars, just off the top of my head, that are filled with all sorts of women just dying to make some bad decisions.”

“Tommy…”

“You and I, buddy. We could be those bad decisions. What are you waiting for??”

“I don’t know, Tommy. I’m just not… feeling it.”

Tommy set his beer down and leaned across the booth they were sitting at. He placed his hand on Oliver’s forehead, his face screwed up as he considered.

“No, I don’t detect a fever. How’s your stomach?”

Oliver swatted his best friend’s hand away. “I’m not sick, Tommy. I’m serious. I don’t think I want to do that same old club pickup routine anymore.”

“Good god. Don’t tell me you miss Helena? Oliver, honestly buddy, she was a witch. I don’t even think that’s hyperbole.”

“No, I don’t miss Helena. Her breaking up with me was… right.”

“Okay… but are you a total monogamist now? You want another relationship?”

“No, I don’t want that either.”

“Then what the fuck do you want??”

“I don’t know. Maybe I just need some time.”

Tommy sighed and took another drink of his beer. “Just make sure you don’t take too long.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because. Too long and your dick might shrivel up and fall off.”

Oliver groaned and tipped back his beer, taking long gulps. God forbid it’d come to that.

***

“I think it’s time we stop seeing each other.”

Felicity Smoak blinked and set her fork down. All around them, the restaurant buzzed with conversation and the clanking of silverware and glassware as other diners went about their evening. It took her a moment to even realize just what Ray had said to her.

“Wait, what?”

“Felicity, I just asked you to take a vacation with me to the mountains, to my family’s cabin. And you said you couldn’t.”

“Yes, because I have a big project due at work and—“

“And last week, you had to cancel dinner with my parents because of an emergency with the servers.” Ray’s brown eyes were somber and serious as he regarded her across the candlelit table.

“Well, yes, but Ray, I’m on call for server emergencies.”

“We were already seated and waiting for a half hour by the time you called.”

She felt her cheeks heating. “I’m sorry, I got distracted trying to diagnose the problem and lost track of time.”

“You are constantly cancelling plans because of work. And last month when I asked you about taking our relationship to the next level, do you remember what you said?”

“Not exactly—“

“You said that now wasn’t a good time because you were in the middle of a project rollout at work.”

Felicity bit her lips. Sure, when he said it like that it sounded bad…

“We’ve been dating exclusively for over a year. I thought we were on the same page. I was in love with you. You said you loved me. Felicity, I had a ring with me that night. I was going to propose.”

Suddenly, the bites of pasta she’d taken turned to ash in her stomach. Oh, god. “Ray…”

“Do you know what it feels like to constantly be put second behind your work? It breaks my heart, Felicity. And I just don’t think I can be second place in your life anymore.”

“So you’re ending things?”

“I don’t want to end things. Felicity, I want to get married. Soon. And have kids. Soon.”

She winced and belatedly tried to hide it behind her wine glass as she took a healthy swig of the oaky red within.

“You see that? You do that every single time I bring up what I want for us in the future. You make that same face. So… yeah. I’m ending things. As much as it breaks my heart, we’re just not in the same place.”

She set her glass down. “But Ray… we’re really good together. Just like this, you and me. We don’t need a certificate or kids. Why do you want what’s perfect to change?”

His expression was serious, his mouth a straight line. “Because it’s not perfect, Felicity. Not for me. And this that we have right now just isn’t enough for me anymore.”

She felt tears prick behind her eyes and blinked them back. “Ray…” she whispered. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“Can you promise me you won’t put me second to your job? Can you promise me that you want to spend your life with me? Married? Can you promise me you want to have children together?” He asked the questions but there was no hope in his voice as he spoke. He knew the answer already, she realized.

Felicity deflated. “I can’t,” she replied, brokenly.

His smile was regretful and he reached across the table for her hands. He rubbed his thumbs over the back of her fingers. “Then I think it’s for the best, Felicity. I don’t want you to be with me just because you don’t want to be alone.”

She winced again at that, mostly because the truth of it stung more than a little.

“And I don’t want to continue to be with you when I know we have no future together. Please, Felicity, let me be free to find someone who does want to share my life with me.”

Well. When he put it like that…

“Oh, Ray. I-I wish I could be what you need.” Words crowded her tongue, wanting to be said, to try to make this better. But Felicity was no idiot and she could read the resolve on his handsome features.

“I know. I wish that too.”

Felicity walked out of the restaurant ten minutes later, feeling strangely empty. Shouldn’t she be more upset than this? She’d been with Ray for over a year. But, hailing a cab, she had to admit to herself that they’d probably been over for a while now. She’d only just taken the time to catch up and realize it.

***

“I don’t get it,” Felicity’s friend Curtis said. She was over at his place, having a Doctor Who marathon, complete with endless pints of mint chip ice cream. It was his idea of the perfect pity party and she had to admit, he was onto something here.

“What don’t you get?” she asked around a mouthful of ice cream.

“Ray wanted to marry you, right?”

She shrugged.

“And you… wanted to put in overtime at the office? You do realize the man owns Palmer Tech, right? You get married, you’d never have to work again!”

Felicity set down her ice cream and fixed her friend with a withering stare. For a genius, Curtis could be bone-dead stupid sometimes.

“Maybe I like working? Maybe I don’t want to be some kept woman, some… arm candy for the rest of my life. I have ideas and drive and I want to use that!”

Curtis held his hands up in a surrender gesture. “Woah, woah, okay Smoaky.”

“Don’t call me Smoaky.” She pointed at him, narrowing her eyes.

“Fine, fine. But Ray didn’t want to entirely stifle your career, did he?”

Felicity shifted, a little uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken. “No, he didn’t.”

“He just wanted to spend time with you, yes?”

“Yes.” Nope, didn’t like this at all.

“Then I think the question you need to ask yourself is… why didn’t you want to spend more time with him?”

“I had work obligations, Curtis, it wasn’t a matter of wanting.”

It was her friend’s turn to fix her with a look. “You and I both know that you can make priorities. And you didn’t. I’m not saying that it was right for Ray to dump you like that. But… maybe think about this before you get into another relationship?”

Felicity sighed and shoved another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. “There won’t be another relationship. Trust me.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver meets Felicity and they hit it off right away. Just as friends though, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm feeling magnanimous and posting the next chapter now rather than waiting for Friday. That's partly because the first chapter was just set up and was so short and you didn't even get any Oliver/Felicity interaction! So here ya go. A Monday Morning Bonus. (it's still morning here)
> 
> After this, I will be posting on Fridays and Fridays only. Thanks to everyone for the GREAT reaction to this story! I hope you love what I've got cooked up for you all.

“Mr. Queen, we’re going to be late.”

Oliver rushed around his penthouse apartment, looking for his jacket and his apartment keys. His shoes were in his hand, his stocking feet sliding on the hardwood floors as he skidded around.

“Tell me something I don’t know, Diggle,” he growled over the phone to his ever-disappointed driver, John Diggle. “I’ll be there in a minute.” 

Soon as I find my keys, he said to himself.

“I don’t need to remind you how interested Mr. Steele is in bringing this woman on board? I can’t tell you how many times he reminded me yesterday that we needed to do our best to woo her. Showing up late to pick her up from the airport isn’t going to impress anyone, least of all your boss.”

Oliver didn’t even reply as he searched. Walter Steele, his boss as well as his step-father, had impressed upon him the same things for the entire last week. Oliver wasn’t sure what Ms. Smoke had done to impress the stoic British expatriate but he knew that if he failed to get her to agree to the job his boss and the CEO of his family’s company was offering, that family dinners were going to be frosty.

Plus, you know, he could get fired.

Just eight years ago, fresh out of Harvard Business school, Oliver wouldn’t have really cared one way or another. Either about disappointing his step-father (who, at the time, was just a very close family friend as his father was still alive) or about getting fired from Queen Consolidated. But time changed things, as did the death of his father five years ago. Since then, Oliver had taken his grooming to take over as CEO one day very seriously.

He’d worked in a variety of departments since graduation. Marketing. Sales. Research and Development. Accounting. Now, he was heading Human Resources. Namely, it was his responsibility to sign new talent to the Queen Consolidated roster. He’d done an admirable job of it for the last eighteen months, his natural charm coming in very handy. But Felicity Smoke from Metropolis was not just any candidate. She was the candidate. And, according to Walter, the brilliant mind who would help them launch QC’s prototyped line of tech to the global market. She was a million dollar hire.

And Oliver was late picking her up from the airport.

“There they are! Fuck!” The elusive keys and jacket finally were located, on top of his in-unit washing machine of all places. “Headed down,” he told Diggle before hanging up the call and tucking the phone into his pants pocket.

His head throbbed painfully as he rode the elevator down to the lobby. A late night of overindulging at the club with his best friend, Tommy Merlyn, was to blame for both the headache and him running late this morning. A little voice in his head said that thirty years old was a bit too old to be spending nights out at the club until all hours, but Oliver ignored it, just like he did every other weekend. He was only going to be young once, right?

In the six months since the breakup with Helena, Oliver hadn’t dated many women. There’d been a few hookups here and there but he found his heart wasn’t in it for one night stands anymore. So more often than not, on their nights out, he and Tommy would commiserate about their lives and drink themselves stupid. The lifestyle was growing a bit old, not that he was ready to admit that.

As soon as Oliver hit the street, he saw Diggle standing next to the town car, holding the back door open. He ducked in and the door snapped closed behind him. A moment later, Dig was behind the wheel and pulling away from the curb.

“You know a shortcut?” Oliver asked.

Diggle gave him a look in the rearview mirror. “Lucky for you, I do.”

John Diggle proceeded to display why he was the best driver in all of Starling City, expertly navigating the busy streets and getting them to the airport on the north side of town in record time. Oliver instructed him to stop in front of the baggage claim doors, where he hopped out and ran inside. Once inside, he realized he’d forgotten to get one of those signs with the woman’s name on it so she could find him in the crowd. Checking the arrivals board, he saw that her plane was disembarking at the gate.

“Shit,” he muttered under his breath, looking around him for a solution, any solution.

Nearby, a driver was leaving with his charge and Oliver ran up to him. “Hey, are you done with the sign? Can I have it?”

The man looked at him as though he was off his rocker, but handed it over with a shrug. With a quick grin and a thanks tossed over his shoulder, Oliver ran to a nearby car rental counter.

The lady behind the counter was currently helping a customer but Oliver butted in, turning up his Queen charm. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but do you have a black marker I can borrow? It’s an emergency.” Another flash of his grin.

The customer, a middle aged man, looked a little annoyed but the employee just smiled demurely while she handed him a black marker. “Just don’t forget where you got that,” she flirted, batting her eyelashes.

Oliver gave her a wink and quickly scrawled “FELICITY SMOKE” on the blank backside of the card. He handed the marker back. “Thanks, beautiful.”

He heard her giggles behind him as he rushed forward to the baggage carousel currently spitting out luggage from the plane from Metropolis. He stood near the rest of the line of people holding up name cards. Most of them were dressed professionally in suits and Oliver felt a little out of place in his slacks and open-collared button down shirt. But it was a Saturday and like hell he was wearing a full suit before noon on a Saturday.

A crush of passengers were headed down the escalators and Oliver did his best not to crane his neck, trying to figure out which of them might be the famed Felicity Smoak. He saw several stuffy looking women that he thought might be her but none of them approached him. As the crowd began to thin, he started to worry if she’d missed her flight.

Oliver was contemplating calling Walter when a voice caught his attention. “Excuse me? Are you waiting for me?”

He turned and saw a petite blonde before him. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore glasses that framed enormous blue eyes. Her pouty lips were tipped up in a hesitant smile. She was wearing a simple dress with a cardigan over the top, stylish and pretty but not stiff and formal. Truthfully, she looked like a breath of fresh air in this stuffy, crowded airport baggage claim.

“Are you Felicity Smoke?” he asked, a little skeptical. This woman certainly didn’t look like she was a tech wizard. She also looked entirely too young to lay claim to the list of accomplishments that Walter had gushed to him about.

Her grin was cheerful and stunning, all at the same time. “That’s me! But, uh, you misspelled my name.”

It took Oliver a second for his brain to catch up. He blinked, having to forcibly look away from her lovely face. He looked at his sign, his forehead creasing.

“Felicity?” How the heck else do you spell that name?

“No, Smoak. S-M-O-A-K. It’s my mother’s maiden name actually. She divorced my dad when he left us and I took her last name and… you didn’t need to know all that.” Her cheeks pinked in the most adorable manner and Oliver found himself captivated all over again.

“Ah. My apologies.” He bowed deeply, and heard her snort with amusement. He straightened and fixed his most charming smile on her. “Whatever can I do to make it up to you?”

“Introduce yourself, maybe?” Her grin was crooked as she winked lopsidedly at him. Oliver cursed under his breath. He’d missed that part, hadn’t he?

He stuffed the sign in the nearest trash can and then held his hand out towards her. “Oliver Queen. VP of Human Resources for Queen Consolidated and in charge of wooing you.”

One of her eyebrows lifted as she took his hand and shook it. Her hand was easily engulfed by his, her skin soft but her shake firm.

“Professional wooing, I hope,” she replied.

Now it was his turn to lift an eyebrow. Setting a boundary so quickly? “Naturally. A business woo, if you will.”

Her cackle was quick and infectious. Oliver offered to help her with her suitcase, which she’d already retrieved. She allowed it and also allowed him to guide her to the doors, beyond which Dig was waiting with the car.

“Felicity Smoak, this is John Diggle. He’s head of QC security and also my driver from time to time. Also, a hell of a workout buddy and all around good friend,” Oliver introduced.

Diggle shook her hand, smiling warmly. Felicity grinned back at him. “Nice to meet you.”

Dig stowed her luggage in the car while Oliver and Felicity climbed in. “Do you want to go check in to the hotel right away or can we start the tour?” he asked her.

“Tour?”

“Of course. Felicity, it’s my job to sell you not just on Queen Consolidated, but on Starling City. I want you to fall in love with this city and not want to leave.”

She chuckled. “I don’t know about that,” she murmured. “Metropolis is a pretty great city. Starling City has nothing on the glitz and glamour.”

Oliver pressed a hand over his chest, affecting mock outrage. “I can’t believe you’d say that! Starling City is the crown jewel of the west coast.”

“You literally have some sort of large scale disaster happen here every year,” she pointed out.

“But only in May!” he rebutted. She burst out laughing. “What? That makes it easy to plan around. Just take a yearly trip every spring and you’ll be fine.”

“Is that what you do?” she asked, her eyes glinting with mirth.

Oliver shrugged. “You live through one earthquake or tsunami, you’ve lived through them all. I think it’s part of the area’s charm.”

She snorted softly. “If you say so.”

“Starling City is full of potential. It’s a city on the brink,” he declared, gesturing out the car window at the decidedly picturesque view of the skyline across the bay from the expressway Diggle drove them down.

“…of bankruptcy?”

He gave her a dry look. “Not lately, no. No, in fact, we’re up and coming, particularly in the area of technology.”

That seemed to get her interest. As Diggle drove them to their first destination, Memorial Park along the waterfront, Oliver filled her in on the stats of local tech companies and collaborations that Queen Consolidated had secured, setting them ahead of the curve when it came to innovation, not just on the west coast, but in the entire country.

At the park, Oliver ushered her around, showing her the best sights and pointing out the trails for walking, bicycling, running. There was a dog park, a children’s park and many places perfect for a picnic on a warm spring day. She seemed charmed by it and Oliver found he rather enjoyed seeing her pleased by something he’d shown her.

He’d expected a rather dull day of escorting a potential hire around and Felicity Smoak was absolutely breaking every single dreary expectation down. He found himself hoping that she would take the job, not just for the betterment of Queen Consolidated, but because he hoped to spend more time with her.

***

After a thorough tour of the park, Oliver led her over to an area of the park that was filled with different food trucks offering all kinds of mouth-watering delicacies. While Metropolis certainly had their fair share of food trucks and hot dog carts, they didn’t have anything quite like this, with this much variety, all in one place.

They took their selections to a nearby picnic table and continued to talk, though it felt a lot more like friendly banter than business wheedling, like she’d expected.

To be frank, Felicity hadn’t expected much at all from this trip to Starling City. To refuse outright would have been financially irresponsible; Kord Industries in Metropolis treated her well enough but her salary and her opportunity for advancement were both stagnant, at best. That was why she’d started putting feelers out at the other major corporations in the country, to see if there was anything better out there.

Admittedly, leaving Metropolis wasn’t ideal. Felicity had a life there. She had friends there. It was where she’d moved upon graduation from MIT five years before. It was a beautiful, vibrant city. Unfortunately, it wasn’t where the tech industry was booming at the moment so opportunities for someone with her qualifications were pretty few and far between.

Plus, there was her breakup with Ray that was making her want to move on from the east coast. A fresh start, if you will.

There were multiple companies interested in her; she’d had encouraging offers from Wayne Industries, Palmer Tech, and LexCorp. But so far, Queen Consolidated in Starling City had courted her the most fervently so she’d agreed to come out for the weekend and meet with their HR representative and learn about the city some more, firsthand.

She had not been expecting that representative to be the grandson of the founder of the company and for him to be so, well, fucking attractive. There really was no better way to describe Oliver Queen’s entire demeanor. He was beautiful with his tall, slim but muscled frame, his piercing blue eyes and rugged scruff shadowing his jaw. His lush lips and his tousled hair. Looking at him made her mouth positively water, and that was before he started laying on the charm.

Make no mistake, she could tell Oliver was no stranger to women and how to flirt with them. Felicity recognized the moves he was putting on her but she also knew that getting involved with him would be a tremendously awful idea should she decide to take this job. They would to be coworkers and given his last name, it would feel an awful lot like nepotism. No, they needed to keep this professional. Or maybe just stay friends. She could do that, right? Stay friends with a man who looked like a Greek god?

As they ate, Felicity made strictly friend-type conversation. “Why should I consider moving here? Lovely park and food trucks aside.”

“Aside from the fact that me and my rousing good looks are here?” He winked and Felicity rolled her eyes, causing him to chuckle. “We’ve got a great burger chain. I’ll take you there before you have to head back to Metropolis to pack up your life there.”

“Mmm, presumptuous,” she said before taking a sip of her soda. “So your best selling point is a burger chain?”

He wagged a finger at her. “Please refrain from using that skeptical tone with me. You haven’t had their double double yet.”

Felicity snorted softly. “No burger is good enough to decide to move cross country for,” she muttered, taking a bite of her street taco. This taco on the other hand… maybe. God, this was delicious.

After lunch, he took her to a Starling City Rockets baseball game. Queen Consolidated had a cushy box, perfectly located to offer the best possible view of the game. As they cheered on the players and sipped their beers, Felicity had to admit she was having a good time. But was a fun time at the ballpark enough of a reason? Well, that and the absolutely amazing salary and signing bonus that QC was offering.

After the game, it was getting near time for dinner but neither of them were hungry.

“I ate too many nachos,” Felicity complained.

“Me too,” Oliver sighed.

“Where are you hiding them? Your stomach is as flat as ever!” she protested, patting a hand over his midsection. Holy wow, he was firm. She felt her cheeks heat as she snatched her hand away.

“Like what you feel?” he asked, smirking

Felicity sent him a mock glare. “It’s not fair. It’s like you repel fat or something. Meanwhile, us mere mortals have to sweat in the gym for hours to get even half as built as you are.”

They walked from the stadium and away from the crowds of fans. As they walked, Oliver checked her out, head to toe, which only made her blush harder.

“I dunno,” he said and it was so quiet, Felicity almost didn’t hear him. “You don’t look so bad either, you know.”

“What was that?”

Oliver shrugged. “I just… I do work out too, you know. A lot. I told you Dig was a workout buddy and I meant it. We spend a lot of time there.”

“Hmm. And you probably drink a lot of health food smoothies and eat kale and grilled salmon and stuff like that.”

“Well, yeah. But grilled salmon is good!” Felicity must have made a face at that because he went on. “If you end up taking the job and moving here, I promise you I will make you my salmon sometime. You’ll see. It’s amazing.”

Her eyebrows flew up. “You cook too?”

Oliver looked uncertain. “Yes?”

“Ugh.” It figured.

“Is that a problem?”

“No, but it does make it more difficult to find any flaws in you.”

The cocksure grin was back. “Who says I have to have any flaws?”

She smirked back at him. “I do. Otherwise, what am I to tease you about?”

The walk to the Starling Museum of Art was just a few blocks over from the ballpark. She could tell that Oliver was less enthused by this particular outing than he had been about the Rockets game, but Felicity really enjoyed a good museum.

And, she had to admit, the Starling Museum was pretty amazing. She unconsciously began to imagine spending rainy Saturday afternoons, wandering amongst the different art installations and studying the canvases. Her enthusiasm bled through and she found herself tugging Oliver along, explaining different pieces to him. Before they left, she could tell he was enjoying himself more than he’d expected to.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” she teased, bumping his shoulder with hers as they walked out to the gathering dusk.

“I remember going there on a field trip when I was ten. I was bored to tears. But, yeah, this wasn’t so bad. I feel like I learned something.”

“You’re welcome,” she chirped smugly, lifting her chin. Oliver just smiled at her, his expression soft and contemplative. The moment hung a little heavier than she was anticipating and was only broken when Oliver seemed to shake himself.

“I don’t know about you, but I worked up a good appetite in there. Dinner?”

She smiled, relieved at the break in tension. “Sounds great. What’s on the docket?”

“Well… I’m supposed to take you to Table Salt. Walter wanted to show off Starling’s fancy restaurant scene.”

She sensed there was something else he wanted to say. “But?” she prodded.

“But…” he drawled. Then he stopped and faced her on the sidewalk. “I’d rather take you someplace else.”

Goosebumps rose on her arms. His intense blue gaze was fixed on her and she felt aware down to the roots of her hair. Swallowing, she found her voice at last. “Where?”

“Come with me.”

He took her hand and she enjoyed the feel, surprisingly rough calluses felt delightful against her softer palm. She pulled her attention from that and towards where he was leading her.

It was a shorter walk and the atmosphere changed around them, less high rise and urban hustle and more quaint and artsy. “What is this neighborhood?” she asked.

“This is the north end of the Glades,” he explained. “The Glades have always been a rougher part of town but the city has worked hard the last ten years to revitalize it.”

The brick buildings and wrought iron lamp posts were charming. Flower filled barrels lined the streets. “Revitalization or gentrification?” she asked, because it needed to be asked.

Oliver made a noise. “Probably a little of both, if I’m being honest. Luckily, we have some councilmen who genuinely care about the Glades and the people who call it home and have fought for their interests.”

“That’s good,” she said. “I like it here. More than the downtown, if we’re being honest.”

He smiled at her briefly. “Me too.”

He brought her to an unassuming storefront. The sign out front said “Big Belly Burger”. Her grin was immediate. “Burgers?” she asked him.

“I told you, Starling has the best burgers on the west coast. Maybe the entire country.”

She laughed. “Okay, lets see if this double double is as great as you say it is.”

Inside, Oliver ordered for them while Felicity secured a booth near one of the enormous plate glass windows. Little potted violets sat on all the tables, which she found lovely. She toyed with the petals of one while she waited for him to return with the food.

“Double Double with cheese, curly fries and a chocolate milkshake,” he announced as he set the tray in front of her. The smell was… incredible.

“Oh my god,” she groaned, suddenly starving.

They each dug into their meals without further conversation. Felicity was halfway into her burger and had downed a decent handful of fries before she finally spoke.

“Well?” Oliver prompted after he swallowed a bite of his burger.

“It’s really good,” she admitted before taking another bite.

One of his eyebrows went up. “Just good?”

She chewed and swallowed, then wiped her mouth with her napkin. “Okay, it’s amazing.”

“Is it the best?”

Felicity thought of her favorite burger place back in Metropolis. It was good but… “It might just be.”

He smiled, satisfied with that. “I told you.”

They finished their meals, bantering back and forth. It took only a shamefully short amount of time before she was finished and she sat back in the booth, rubbing her full belly and sipping at her milkshake. “I may never eat again,” she groaned.

“You say that now but you haven’t seen where I’m taking you for brunch tomorrow.”

“Don’t talk to me about food,” she protested.

He chuckled. “Okay, then let’s talk about the city. What do you think so far?”

Felicity hadn’t wanted to like it as much as she did. She’d been ready to be unimpressed. “Better than I expected,” she admitted. “That could be in part because of my stellar tour guide.”

Oliver puffed out his chest. “So you’ll take QC’s offer?”

“Not so fast there, pretty boy.”

“Oh come on, what is there to discuss? The city is winning you over.”

“I didn’t say that. I just… I don’t know, Starling always seems so… gloomy. Broody. Intense.”

“That’s the city equivalent of a guy being tall, dark, and handsome. Women love that.”

She snorted softly. “I don’t love that.”

He lifted a brow and his lips quirked. “Give me the rest of this weekend and I’ll change your mind.” 

“You seem awfully confident of your wooing skills.”

“I’ve had no complaints so far,” he replied easily. Were they still talking about the city?

They finished up their milkshakes and Oliver called Diggle to come by and pick them up. It was time to go to the hotel.

It was a glittering, fancy place and Felicity felt more than a little out of place. But Oliver put her at ease as he stuck with her through check in and walked her up to her room, trailed by the bellboy with her things.

The room itself was cavernous and filled with fresh flowers and the linens looked like a cloud she could lose herself in. Suddenly, nothing else sounded better. Maybe a long hot shower first, but it was going to be a close race.

“Thank you for today,” she told Oliver after she tried to tip the bellboy and Oliver waved her off, tipping the man himself, explaining it was all part of the paid weekend.

Oliver smiled at her. “Believe me when I say, it was all my pleasure.”

“So what’s on the schedule for tomorrow? You mentioned brunch?”

He nodded. “Yep. Not too early. Then I have a few things for us to go do and see. And I’ll talk to you more about the job offer particulars too.”

“Oh yeah! I forgot about the job!” she teased. Truthfully, the reason for this visit to Starling had fallen by the wayside. Felicity found she’d truly enjoyed her day, as though she were on a real vacation.

“Don’t you dare. I want the bonus I’ll get if you sign,” he said, wagging a finger at her.

She scoffed. “Aren’t you a billionaire’s son? You probably have more than enough money.”

“It’s true I do. But… well, we’ll talk tomorrow. I see you eyeing that bed with lustful gazes. I can take a hint.”

Felicity laughed as she closed the door behind him. God, he was charming as hell. As excited as she was to fall into bed, however, a very insistent part of her wanted just as badly to throw Oliver Queen down onto that same bed and have her way with him.

Felicity sighed, pushing off the door and heading into the bathroom to start the shower. “Down, girl. That is a bad, bad idea.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity's weekend adventure continues and some revelations are made. Felicity has a choice to make: does she want the job in Starling or not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOU GUYS! Your reaction to the last chapter was absolutely delightful. I'm so happy you all enjoyed Oliver and Felicity's meeting and their quippy banter. @andachippedcup was positively VITAL in the creation of this story and in no chapter does that show more than this one. I honestly couldn't have done this without her. 
> 
> Without further ado.... here is this week's regularly scheduled chapter. 😉

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky the following day. Oliver picked Felicity up at her hotel at 10:30 in the morning, finding himself anxious to be back in her presence again. It was odd. Naturally, he loved women and had a very healthy appreciation for sex. But spending time with a woman like he would with his best friends? That wasn’t as common for him. But he found himself eager to spend more time with her.

“This omelet is outrageous,” Felicity commented before taking another bite.

“Good, right?” Oliver said, grinning. They were sitting on the patio of his favorite brunch spot, watching people walk by on the street. Steaming cups of coffee, ice water, and tart mimosas filled the table along with their meals, a steak omelet for her and a veggie scramble for him.

“Good is such a small, insignificant word,” she said, licking her fork. Oliver shifted in his seat.

He’d thought about Felicity, while laying in bed last night, for quite a while before he was able to finally drift off to sleep. She was damned attractive and he’d hoped that maybe it was just that he’d had such a good time with her that he remembered her being as alluring as his memories insisted. But this morning, she wore an airy sundress paired with a light wash denim jacket. Her hair was down, set in beachy waves that cascaded over her tanned shoulders. It wasn’t just a trick of his memory. She really was that hot. Holy hell.

Suddenly, he felt a very vested interest in getting her to take the job and move to Starling.

“So before we set off on another adventure,” he said, after clearing his mind with a bracing gulp of his black coffee, “let’s talk about the job a little.”

That got her attention. She shifted forward in her seat. “It sounds like I would be in charge of my own division of R&D. Is that right?”

“Uh huh. Listen, we need you and your ideas to help us launch a whole new line of tech gear. Walter has a lot of ideas for where he wants to take QC and we need someone who has the vision and skill to help pull that off. He believes that person is you.”

Oliver filled her in on QC as a company, the work ethic they fostered among their employees, the benefits package they were offering, the on-site amenities and everything that he felt set the company apart from all their competitors. For him, it wasn’t just about the stock price or the quarterly market reports. Yes, it was his family’s company but ten years ago he hadn’t cared about that either. What he loved about QC was their commitment to their employees and their community. As he told Felicity all about it, he saw her eyes light up and he thought that maybe those same things appealed to her as well. He truly hoped so.

“You’ve given me a lot to consider,” Felicity said, biting her lip. Their plates were empty and they were just finishing off their mimosas now.

Oliver held up a hand. “Don’t feel you need to give me an answer now. Take the rest of today. Just enjoy yourself and we can talk more tonight.”

She smiled, looking a little relieved. “Okay. So, what are we doing first today?”

“The zoo,” he announced.

Her eyes widened. “The zoo?” There was a hint of excitement in her voice that made him smile.

“Yep. One of the best things about Starling is our zoo. I know Metropolis has a zoo as well, but frankly, I think ours is superior. Come on, let’s go see.”

Diggle drove them to the zoo, which was on the west side of town, across the river from the downtown area. It was a sprawling park that Oliver had loved coming to ever since he was a little boy. The zoo was one of the institutions that he regularly donated towards.

Today, they were hosting an Art and Wine Festival inside the zoo that he thought Felicity might enjoy partaking in. The amazing and extensive animal exhibits were just the icing on the cake.

She insisted they tour the animals first and Oliver was more than happy to oblige. They walked around and checked out each habitat, each of them making comments and pointing out their favorites. It almost felt like a date, not that he’d been on any actual dates in… well, at least six months. But probably longer. Helena had wanted to do all the high society stuff together, nothing quite so prosaic as wandering a zoo, hand in hand.

Felicity was particularly captivated by the African elephant habitat. She oohed over the enormous mammals, laughing at the antics of the young calf. “Elephants are pretty smart, you know,” she told him.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that. They’re one of the smartest animals, right?”

“No. I mean, yes they are, but I’m talking about how they run their society.”

“Elephants have a society?” That was news to him.

“Sure do! Did you know the sexes don’t live together? I mean, when the babies are born, they’re with their families, of course. But when they’re old enough? The boy elephants get kicked right out. And they wander around going from herd to herd, breeding. Meanwhile, the family herd is just females working together for the common good. Led by a matriarch who is a kickass female herself. I mean, doesn’t that sound like the life? None of this mating for life pressure. Talk about high expectations.”

Well, that did surprise him. Less about the elephants, though, and more about her reaction to their lifestyle. “So what you’re saying is the whole marriage and family thing, isn’t your scene?”

Felicity shrugged as they moved along to the next exhibit. “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s just… animals partner up with whoever looks like the right match or whoever smells good that day or looks pretty enough and they just go for it. They aren’t having any conversations about ‘where is this going’ and ‘in five years I want 2.5 kids’ or anything like that.”

“That is true…” he agreed carefully, wondering if this was some sort of elaborate trap she was setting.

“And you know what? They look pretty damn happy to me! Look at these bonobos, for example.” She gestured at the habitat they had stopped in front of.

“What about them?” He’d seen them before, of course, but to him, they looked like just about any other ape.

“From what I’ve read, they’re sex fiends, Oliver. And damn happy about it.”

He nearly swallowed his tongue, choking as she strode forward to listen to the trainer who was speaking to a small gathered crowd of visitors. Coughing discreetly, he joined her.

“Hello folks and welcome to the Bonobo habitat,” the trainer, a young, pretty woman in khakis and a hat was saying. “We have a group of five Bonobos here at the zoo and that includes two males and three females. Bonobos are actually the closest relative to humans- they actually share 98% of their DNA with us, so a fun fact for you guys is that they are actually more closely related to us than they are to Gorillas.”

Felicity looked over her shoulder at him, a grin on her face. He nodded back at her, smiling.

“Right now, our keepers are going to be doing a feeding and training session with our troop, so I encourage you all to come watch,” the trainer said, gesturing towards the fence that separated the visitors from the habitat beyond. Oliver and Felicity got a good spot and watched as two other keepers came out and started to feed and work with the animals. But soon, he noticed a pair of Bonobos had split off from the group and were… well… they were screwing. Right there in the open. Rather shamefully. He nudged Felicity and she stifled a laugh. The other visitors quickly noticed as well, as did the trainer who was standing with them.

“Now, Bonobos are definitely what we could call the lovers and not the fighters of the primate world,” the trainer said, smirking. “As you can see right now, two of our bonobos have chosen not to participate in the training session and instead are choosing to be with each other.”

“Oh, is that what the kids are calling it these days?” he whispered in Felicity’s ear. She clapped a hand over her mouth to hide her laugh, but he saw her shoulders shaking with mirth.

“Bonobos are considered a promiscuous species,” the trainer continued, “meaning they do not form monogamous bonds but instead, they will engage with multiple partners regardless of gender or reproductive readiness. So even if a female is not cycling, she will seek out a partner. This is pretty rare in the animal kingdom, because most animals will only expend that kind of energy in an attempt to reproduce. But in Bonobo society, the frequency of these interactions is believed to build strong bonds, maintain peace, and encourage cooperation. So essentially, what you’re seeing right now is two Bonobos just maintaining their relationship and keeping everyone happy.”

“That’s what she said,” Felicity muttered to him and Oliver couldn’t cover his mouth quick enough to hold in the laugh that burst out of him.

As they wandered further into the zoo, Oliver nudged her shoulder. “So do you want to talk about why you’re down on monogamous relationships or do you want me to guess? 20 questions? A game of charades?”

Felicity made a face. “My last relationship… ended pretty poorly. I mean, I suppose it was amicable but he wanted more, marriage and all of that, and I...“

“Didn’t?” Oliver supplied when she fumbled.

“I was busy with work. He didn’t appreciate sharing me with my career. Which is what makes me looking for a new job now a bit ironic but…”

“Not necessarily,” he said. “You want to get away from Metropolis.”

Felicity stared at him, blinking.

“I’m sorry, if I overstepped, I—“

“No!” she rushed to say. “No, I mean, you’re not wrong. I am looking to… start over. We’d been together a long time and there were a lot of memories there. Plus, I’m hoping for more advancement. My job in Metropolis is pretty stagnant.”

“You didn’t have to tell me, but I’m glad you did,” he said. “If it helps any, I also recently got out of a long term relationship. She wanted us to be a bigger deal too, mostly in the eyes of society I think, and I…”

“Didn’t.” She smiled at him. “I get it.”

“Looks like neither of us are batting 1000 in this relationship business.”

“Nope. All the more reason to avoid getting in another.”

“Amen! I’m absolutely not looking for anything long term right now,” he agreed.

“Me either. But… I will say this…”

“Hmm?”

“I miss sex. A lot.”

Oliver laughed out loud at that and she joined in after a minute. They continued on through the zoo and he nudged her shoulder again. “You’ll have sex again,” he assured her.

“You promise that?” she returned, her tone acerbic.

“I promise.”

After they took in all the animals, they went to the center of the park where the festival was set up and they each enjoyed tasting all the wines and looking at all the art for sale. Felicity even bought a few pieces, making Oliver promise to hold onto them for her. For now. He felt buoyed by that, maybe that meant she was intending to take the job and move here? He didn’t ask though. They were having too much fun drinking and laughing to interrupt it with serious talk. For now.

***

The zoo and the Art and Wine Festival were so much fun, they ended up spending a good portion of the day there. The sun was starting to dip towards the horizon when they finally left, dropping the canvases she’d purchased with Diggle who dutifully met them at the gates to the zoo.

From there, they walked on foot to a coffee shop that Oliver swore up and down made the best coffee drinks in town.

“I stop in here on my way to work all the time, can’t miss it.”

“Well, coffee is very important to me, so this better measure up,” she teased him.

They sat with their steaming beverages in a back corner of the cafe, away from the other patrons. It was time to talk business, she knew, and it was better they weren’t interrupted or distracted.

“So, how do you feel about Starling City now versus when you first landed yesterday morning?” Oliver asked.

Felicity thought about that for a moment. Everything she’d heard about Starling before this visit was that it was a rainy, dreary place, fraught with economic plight and natural disasters. The reality, as it turned out, was quite different. “I have to admit, I’m impressed,” she told him. “This city isn’t at all what I was expecting. I can see why you love it so much.”

“Can you see yourself making the move here?”

She blew out a sigh. Moving was a pain in the ass, even when it was just across town. Across the country? “Without the job, I doubt I’d give it too much thought. But the offer QC has extended is impressive enough for me to contemplate it seriously, even with a move across the country.”

“I’ve never moved outside of Starling so I can’t quite relate,” Oliver admitted. “Would it help if QC offered to cover all moving costs, on top of your signing bonus?”

Felicity’s eyebrows flew up. “Even full service movers?”

“You won’t have to pack a single box, if you don’t want to,” he promised.

She gnawed on her lip before taking a sip of her drink. Her mind was racing. The significant boost in pay, the promoted job title and all the responsibilities that afforded, as well as the opportunity to grow and advance in the company, on top of the signing bonus and all the benefits and now fully compensated moving? She’d be an idiot to turn this offer down.

Oliver watched her closely; she could feel his eyes on her. “So what’s your verdict?”

“I’ll take it. I think at this point, I’d be a fool not to. QC is a wonderful company, and Starling is a beautiful city.”

“Yes!” he cheered. Then he reached a hand across the table and she shook it. “Diggle has the paperwork in the car, let me run out and get it. I’ll also call Walter and let him know; he’ll be thrilled.”

“Wonderful. While you’re doing that, I’ll draft my resignation letter to Kord and start looking for a mover.”

The next hour or so was spent dealing with all the bureaucracy of changing jobs and moving. It was a lot to consider but she really felt that this would all be worth it to her.

The sky outside the cafe was dark when they emerged. Felicity laughed, a little hysterically, as they walked down the street towards the riverfront. “Where am I going to live?”

Oliver shrugged, smiling. “I can help with that. I know some great places and we can handle that over the phone and Skype.”

“You make it sound easy, it’s not easy,” she pointed out.

“Well, what sort of things do you want in an apartment?”

“I kind of like that area of the Glades near Big Belly Burger. Anything around there, a nice brick walkup, would be great. I’d like two bedrooms, so I can use the extra room as an office. Uhm… a balcony. For my cat.”

“Your cat?”

Felicity grinned. “Yeah. Her name is Amelia. I’ve had her since just after I graduated. She goes where I go. And she likes to sit on the balcony at my current place and watch the birds. So I need a balcony.”

“I think that’s doable. What else?”

“Uhm, I’d like there to be a dedicated bathroom off one of the bedrooms but it’s not necessary. A fireplace would be a bonus, again, not necessary. Oh! A walk in closet. I need one. I have a lot of shoes.”

“I should be writing this down,” he muttered. “What about in the kitchen?”

That made her pause for a moment before she hurried forward. “The kitchen? What do you mean? Like, appliances? I assume those would be included…”

“I mean do you have a preference between gas and electric stoves? Double ovens? Counter space? Cupboards?”

“I don’t really care about that stuff. I don’t really cook,” she admitted.

“For real?” He blinked down at her, surprised. “At all?”

“I mean, I can use the microwave and I make toast and stuff but baking? Using the stove? Uh uh. Bad idea.”

“That bad?”

“Oh yeah. I nearly burned down my kitchen in the first apartment I had.”

“Good lord,” he groaned, and laughed. “How have you managed to keep yourself alive all this time?”

“That’s a really good question. Takeout. And microwave dinners.”

He groaned again, making her laugh. 

They kept walking towards the river. Oliver wouldn’t tell her where they were going next and it was a part of the downtown area that she hadn’t been to yet. They passed the QC tower on the way there and Felicity realized that would be her new work home, very soon. The thought excited her.

“Where are we going?” she asked for maybe the fifth time.

Oliver’s smile was enigmatic. “You’ll like it, I promise.”

It was a warm night, which he told her was a little unusual for early June. “In a couple weeks, sure. But this is probably the first really nice weekend we’ve had so far this year. You chose a good weekend to come visit,” he said.

“Or my being here made the weather nice,” she replied, preening a little. Oliver just laughed.

“I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.”

A few minutes later, the skyscrapers thinned and the riverfront rose up before them. And with it…

“A carnival!” she cried.

The bright, colorful lights of the carnival twinkled against the dark night sky, a ferris wheel spinning lazily as the muted cheers and screams of people filled her ears. A carousel revolved, the smell of popcorn and fried dough filled her nose, and tinny music played.

“It’s only in town this weekend. Again, you lucked out.”

“Again, I think it’s all because of me being here,” she said, grinning as she grabbed his hand and pulled him forward.

They tried everything. They played all the terrible midway games (Oliver won her a stuffed bear), they shared a funnel cake (Felicity booped his nose and got powdered sugar all over it, making him sneeze), they even rode a few of the rides. Her favorite was the ferris wheel.

“Oh, it’s gorgeous up here!” she cried when they inevitably stopped at the very top.

“You can see all of the city from here,” Oliver said. “There’s the QC building.”

“Where do you live?” she asked.

“Near the Glades. Over there,” he pointed. “Penthouse.”

“Of course,” she snorted. “What about your family? Your family still lives in town, right?”

“After my dad died, my mom sold the estate and she moved to the coast. She and my sister live over on the beach now. I try to visit as often as I can. Walter, QC’s CEO after my dad died, ended up marrying my mom about eighteen months ago. He stays in the city during the week but goes to the beach house on weekends.”

“I didn’t know Walter was your stepfather,” Felicity said.

Oliver shrugged. “He was close with our family and when my father died… I know it probably sounds corny but he was there for my mother when she could barely drag herself out of bed. He was our CFO but he stepped up to run the company while I learn the ropes. He’s a good guy.”

He was being earnest, Felicity recognized. This revelation made her feel even better about taking the job at QC. Knowing that the man in charge was a good guy, admired and capable, responsible and caring… that went a long way. Ted Kord was a decent CEO but word around Kord Industries was he was a bit of an asshole.

The ferris wheel jerked into motion again, plummeting them through the cooling night sky. She closed her eyes, savoring the sensation.

“Quite a rush, huh?” Oliver said as they ascended again.

“God, yes,” she breathed. “I haven’t had this much fun in forever, it seems like. I’ve been cooped up and working all the time, I almost forgot what it was like to get out and enjoy life like this.”

“Life isn’t just about work,” he told her.

“I know. Or… I know now, I guess. I wish this didn’t have to end. This weekend has been a blast, Oliver.” She meant it too. It was easy to relax and enjoy herself with Oliver. She wasn’t worried about impressing him or thinking about her next deadline or… she wasn’t bored. Felicity realized, in a sudden moment of clarity, that Ray had bored her.

“Maybe it doesn’t,” he said.

She cast a look towards him. “Of course it does. I have to get back to Metropolis and pack up my life there.”

“I meant after you move here. We can keep hanging out, if you want. I had a lot of fun this weekend too. Dig and Tommy aren’t into stuff like this.”

“I would like to go back to the zoo after I move,” she said.

“Absolutely. Big Belly Burger, too.”

“On weekends, of course,” she corrected.

“Naturally. Though we can do lunch together during the week, if you want.”

“God, that sounds perfect,” she said. “Okay, it’s a deal.”

She stuck her hand out towards him and he shook it. “Deal,” he agreed.

“You’re going to regret that when I make you fix my drains or whatever.”

“You know they have plumbers you can hire for that sort of thing.”

“Nope. Too late. We made a deal, it’s your duty to fulfill all my weird little requests.”

Oliver just snorted and smiled.

After the ferris wheel, Felicity was feeling pretty tired so Oliver called up Dig and they rode back to her hotel. He offered to walk her up, which she appreciated.

“What time is your flight tomorrow?” he asked as they rode up the elevator together.

“Early. Takes off at 8:15.”

Oliver made a face. “And I have a meeting at 8:30. Typical Monday morning bullshit.” He sighed. “Looks like we have to say goodbye tonight.”

“More like see you soon, right?” she said. “Here, give me your phone number and we’ll chat while I’m back in Metropolis.”

They exchanged numbers and he walked her to her room door. She paused in the doorway, fighting an overwhelming urge to invite him inside. She didn’t want a relationship, what she’d told him earlier that day was true, and she genuinely liked Oliver and the weird dynamic they had going. But he was also hot as hell and she was missing sex in a bad way.

No, she wouldn’t jeopardize this new job and whatever it was they had that way. She would stay strong.

“Thanks for the escort, sir,” she said, trying to keep it light.

He saluted her. “My pleasure, ma’am.” With a wink, he walked back down the hall towards the elevators.

Felicity closed the door and leaned against it. She was looking forward to moving to Starling, that was true.. But keeping things strictly platonic between her and Oliver, well, that was going to be a challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More coming next Friday! Happy weekend, everyone!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity moves to Starling and she and Oliver come to an understanding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you believe I forgot to post on Friday? Totally slipped my mind. I didn't even come close to thinking about it until yesterday morning. By then I figured I may as well wait for Monday. So let's try this again. Here's the next chapter! I'm going to see if posting on Mondays will be better than posting on Fridays. But it's a crap shoot. By all means, feel free to poke me if I'm not remembering to post. I can be terribly forgetful! 
> 
> In the meantime, enjoy this chapter. It's a momentous one. 😉

It was a little over two weeks later when Felicity finally moved to Starling. Oliver picked her up at the airport and took her to the same hotel she’d been in before, where she’d stay until the truck with all her things arrived. It took two days but she swore up and down she didn’t mind. She landed on a Tuesday night and showed up for her first day at Queen Consolidated the next Wednesday morning.

Oliver arranged for a lunch with her and Walter that first day and felt a warm sense of pride at how well the two of them hit it off. Walter clearly appreciated Felicity’s intelligence and ingenuity. Felicity enjoyed Walter’s calm authority and caring manner. Oliver, meanwhile, enjoyed both of them and seeing them get along so well made him even more sure that convincing Felicity to accept the job had been the right move.

Besides picking her up at the airport and that first lunch, Oliver didn’t get to see Felicity all that much the first few days she was there. Work had both of them busy, her more than him. They continued to text, however, just as they’d done while she was back in Metropolis. They shared memes and bantered back and forth.

Felicity was unlike any other woman he’d ever known. He couldn’t compare her to his mom or sister; she had a completely different background and demeanor. She wasn’t like Helena or Susan or any of other women he’d dated either. She felt… real.

It was Saturday before the moving truck arrived and Felicity asked him to come over after they were done unloading things into the apartment he’d helped her pick out to celebrate the move. Oliver happily accepted and showed up with a six pack of beer and a bag full of take-out from Big Belly Burger.

“Really?” she said when she opened the door. “I expected you’d want to cook for me.”

“Next time,” he promised.

Her apartment was everything she’d said she wanted. It was located on the north side of the Glades, near downtown but full of the character she’d appreciate so much during her visit. Brick facade, gas lamp style street lights, and barrels full of flowers out on the sidewalk.

The apartment itself was gorgeous. It’d been updated recently, so all the finishes inside were new and modern. The floors were a wide plank wood, stained a sandy brown color. The kitchen had all new appliances, though he knew she cared very little about that. The huge windows in the living room overlooked the street one story below and window boxes filled with colorful flowers gave it a homey effect.

She showed him around, after he’d set the food and drink down. “Everything has to be arranged, of course,” she said as she showed him the bedroom she was going to use an office. “I’d rather the desk be under the window than against that wall.”

Her bedroom was relatively large, with an equally large bathroom adjacent to it. “This is the best part,” she said. “Look at that shower.”

Oliver whistled. “You could have a party in that shower.”

“I know, right? I wonder how many people would fit in there.”

“A lot. I’m a little jealous in fact. I thought I had a great shower but it’s only half the size of this.”

Felicity looked pleased to hear that. “I’m glad that in at least one area, my apartment is superior to your literal penthouse.”

They headed back towards the living area and Oliver stole another glance at her bedroom, noticing that the colorful bedspread and the art hanging over her sizable bed fit Felicity to a T. He tore his eyes away from her bed (and his own imagination) and followed her out to where he’d dumped the food when he came in.

They took the burgers and the beers into the living room. Felicity had a comfy sofa that she had facing the fireplace, right next to the large windows. They settled there, their food laid out on the chic little coffee table in front of them.

Felicity sort of faced him, one of her legs tucked up under her, while she ate her burger. “This is so nice, thank you for coming over,” she said.

Oliver took a pull on his beer before he answered. “Thank you for having me. I was wondering how you’d been settling in. You like the job so far?”

She nodded. “Yeah. So far. But it’s only been three days,” she pointed out.

“True. And how about living in Starling? Do you miss your friends back in Metropolis?”

“A little. But they’ve all promised to visit. You know, this apartment is at least twice the size of my last place. I’ve never had so much space and so few people to share it with before.”

“I’m sure you’ll make plenty of friends here. I can introduce you to some good people, if you like.”

She smiled gratefully. “That’d be great. I desperately need to have friends here.”

“Well, you’ve got me,” he pointed out.

“Oh? And you’re a friend, are you? Is that what we are?” Her tone was teasing but he could see she was genuinely curious. He supposed they’d never really defined things between them. Still, he couldn’t resist teasing her.

“Why, did you want us to be something else?” He waggled his brows for effect. Felicity snorted.

“That’s not what I mean. At all.”

He shrugged casually. “Good, you couldn’t handle this anyway.”

Felicity raised an eyebrow at him, smirking. “Do you have to turn everything into something sexual?”

“No, usually just my presence is enough to make other people turn things sexual. All I have to do is show up.” He smirked back at her.

Felicity rolled her eyes, trying and failing to bite back her smile. “Good lord.”

He could tell she was enjoying the banter so he kept going. “Not the first time a woman has called me god, won’t be the last.” 

“I can’t handle you right now!”

“Not the first time I’ve heard that either.”

That got him a pillow thrown at his face. Worth it. They continued to eat their meals and as they did, entered into a bit of a double entendre contest, to see who could shock the other the most.

Despite his strong start, Felicity ended up winning the night, just before he left.

“Hey, tomorrow, I was thinking of going to see that new Chris Hemsworth movie. You want to come with me?”

“I’ll always come for you,” she told him and if he hadn’t known better, if he hadn’t caught the exaggerated innocent blinking of her lashes as she said it, he might have thought it was an unconscious flub.

But he did know better and it was enough to make him stumble and slam into her kitchen island. “Holy hell, Felicity!”

She was bent over, cackling. “Your face!” she gasped, pointing in his general direction.

“You know, you look sweet and innocent but you’re so not.”

She straightened and grinned at him. “Why thank you. I’m glad I could… please.”

“Not yet, but I bet you could,” he told her with a smirk.

Her eyebrows waggled. “Nice one, but I still win.”

“Dammit,” he muttered as he let himself out of her apartment.

***

Over the course of the next week, Felicity found her self control rapidly fraying. After the movie on Sunday, she met Oliver for lunch three days, and for coffee all five days. They texted multiple times every day and even talked on the phone Tuesday and Friday night. Their banter was flirty and suggestive and Felicity wasn’t even remotely convinced it was strictly platonic. Because it wasn’t.

Oh, they’d start out with the best of intentions. One of them would initiate the conversation, keeping it light and easy and then the other would make an innuendo or send a sexy gif over text and it would just… devolve.

“Why are we like this?” Felicity asked him on the phone Friday evening. He’d initiated the phone call that night and Felicity had been the one to make it dirty just two minutes later. What followed was an increasingly suggestive conversation that culminated in Oliver asking her what color her underwear was.

“I don’t know,” Oliver groaned. “I think I’m just hard up.”

“You?” she scoffed. “I thought you said all you had to do was show up.”

“To be perfectly honest, I haven’t played the player game since Helena and I started going out and then after we broke up, I just never really got back into it. I don’t know. I think I’m past it.”

“But not sex,” she clarified.

“Hell no. I really want to have sex again sometime, hopefully soon.”

“And you don’t want a relationship.”

“Like I had with Helena? No thanks. Not for me. I’ll pass.”

“See? I get that! The last thing I want is to have to deal with someone else’s expectations of me like that. I’ll just fuck it up like I did before, hurting both of us. Nope. Not for me.”

“But you miss sex.”

“Oh, hell yes. Surely there has to be a happy medium between the sleazy one-night-stand and a stifling relationship, right?”

“If I find it, I’ll let you know.”

Today, Oliver was cooking her dinner. It was the first time she was really seeing what he could do. Frankly, he couldn’t be worse than she was and a free meal was a free meal, even with her brand new beefy salary. Felicity remembered the hungry days of MIT too well to look that gift horse in the mouth.

This was her first time going to his apartment and she was already blown away just crossing the lobby. Everything was sparkling clean, with sleek, designer lines and tasteful decoration. The doorman greeted her, letting her know that Mr. Queen in Penthouse B was waiting for her, before showing her which elevator to use.

It was easy to forget that Oliver came from obscene amounts of money. He seemed no different from her, a girl who grew up daughter to a Las Vegas cocktail waitress. By the time she arrived at his door, she was feeling more than a little intimidated.

“You didn’t tell me you live in the Taj Mahal!” she accused when he opened the door.

Oliver snorted. “Hello to you too. Come on in.”

She passed him, stepping into his vast entryway. “Hi. And also, this place is the fanciest apartment building I’ve ever been in.”

“It’s just a place to live, Felicity. Regardless of the decor.”

“And the fancy doorman.”

“His name is Jim. He’s really nice once you get to know him.”

Oliver led her through to his grand, open living area. His kitchen was massive, putting hers to shame. But it made sense that his would be larger since he appeared to actually use it as a kitchen should be used. Pots were simmering on the stove and delicious scents filled the air. Her mouth watered.

“Oh my god, you really do cook!” she exclaimed as she set her purse on the end of the massive kitchen island.

He smirked, a dimple showing in his scruffed cheek. “Did you think I was lying?”

“No,” she said, a little defensive. “But I was expecting spaghetti or meatloaf or something. This smells like a gourmet meal!”

“Because it is,” he said with a wink. He gestured for her to have a seat at one of the stools along the island and she did so. A couple of place settings were already out, complete with salad forks and wine glasses. She watched as he returned to the counter where he was preparing what looked like a salad.

“So what’s for dinner?” she asked, peering around the spacious kitchen curiously.

“Roast lamb with vegetables, rice pilaf and citrus fennel salad. Oh, and a bottle of Pinot noir.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you serious? You made all that?” she squeaked.

Oliver chuckled. “I did.”

“Where the hell did you learn to cook? The Cordon Bleu??”

“Our housekeeper, Raisa, mostly. She was a second mother to me growing up and she was a fantastic cook. She instilled the love of cooking in me and from there I sort of… taught myself.”

“Well, that sorts it. We’re going to be friends forever because I’m going to need you to cook for me for the rest of my life.”

The meal ended up tasting even better than it sounded. The lamb was cooked perfectly and the salad was a literal marvel. The wine was smooth and deep, coating her tongue and settling warmly in her belly. By the time they’d each finished, she felt full, loose, and satisfied.

They sat on his sofa with a second helping of wine, sipping and talking and looking out at the fantastic view of the skyline and the river and bay beyond.

“What’s for dessert?” he asked. “I provided dinner, it’s only fair you brought something for dessert, right?”

Frack. She hadn’t thought about that. She decided to go for the saucy response, falling into the sex-chicken game they’d been playing all week long. “Me. I’m the dessert.”

Oliver blinked at her. “You’re joking, right? Or are you serious?” He’d gone still, focused on her. It made her shiver a little. In a good way.

She blinked back at him. “Uh… joking but maybe also both?”

“Okay, we need to talk,” he said, setting his wine glass aside. “I’ve been thinking. We’ve talked about sex this last week and I wasn’t sure how much was joking and how much was legitimate.”

Curious, she sipped her wine before setting it aside so she could concentrate on him. “Are you talking about the sex talk? About how we’re both hard up and looking for something that isn’t a one night stand or a relationship? Oh, please tell me you found a solution.”

He smiled. “Maybe. An idea came to me a couple days ago.”

“Do tell.”

“Friends with benefits.”

Felicity blinked at him again. Did she hear that correctly? “Wait… you mean… friends who….?”

“Fuck? Yes, that’s what I mean.”

“And you’re referring to you. And me. We’re the friends. The friends who would… fuck.”

Oliver chuckled. “Yes, I meant us.”

She shifted again on the sofa, turning even further towards him. “So, just to be clear. You’re not kidding, are you?”

“Not kidding.”

“We work together. Sort of. For the same company. How do you know this wouldn’t create awkwardness there?”

“Well, as you said, we don’t really work together. So I’m not sure how it would make things awkward there. Unless you’re planning to bang in the conference room.”

She made a choking noise. “No, certainly not. But what if things go wrong? Wouldn’t going to work and seeing each other make it difficult? And what about our friendship.”

“Felicity.” Oliver reached for her hands, stilling her nervous gesturing. “You said you don’t want a relationship, right?”

“Right. I absolutely do not.”

“And neither do I. So there’s no expectation there. How could it go wrong if neither of us is expecting a relationship out of this.”

He had a point there. “Okay, that’s true.”

“We don’t have to,” he rushed to say. “It was just a suggestion. A possible solution. I absolutely do not want to pressure you. But, I just thought, if you were ever feeling lonely… I wouldn’t say no.”

Felicity swallowed, feeling her whole body heat up. The very idea of getting naked and dirty with Oliver was… enticing as hell. They were on a precipice here, one step off of it and there was no coming back. She absolutely should not be considering this but everything in her was clamoring for her to take that step.

Which was why she poked the bear. “Wouldn’t say no to what, exactly?”

Oliver’s blue eyes darkened visibly as he leaned towards her. “You know.”

She licked her lips, delighting at how his gaze drifted down to watch. “Spell it out for me.”

“You. Me. Keeping each other company.” His tone was light but his voice had deepened. He was teasing her but she could see she absolutely had his attention. One hundred percent.

“And what sort of company is that, Oliver?”

Poking. The. Bear.

“….Naked company,” he replied, his gaze traveling over her leisurely. She fought another shiver. God, this was fun.

“And not the sort of naked company that requires a relationship.”

“Perish the thought,” he murmured. “We’re making the conscious choice not to let it get messy. No relationship. Just a couple of friends… keeping each other company.”

“Naked company friends,” she replied, biting back a chuckle.

His dimple reappeared. “Now you’re getting it.”

“Hypothetically…. Assuming I said yes to this proposal of yours…. What would that look like?” Felicity knew damn well what it would look like. But she needed, no, wanted to hear him say it. Apparently she had a kink for dirty talk.

“Do you need me to take off my shirt so you can preview the goods? Because if so, it’ll cost you.”

Yes, please. “I don’t—“ she stammered.

Oliver whipped off the henley he’d been wearing, causing her entire mouth to dry up like the Sahara desert. “Oh.”

He tossed the shirt aside. “Take a good look, Smoak.”

Oh, she absolutely was. Oliver was more muscled than she’d expected. Sure, she knew he was well-built, firm and strong but to see the muscles on his arms, his chest, his (good lord) abs… it was akin to a religious experience. Her fingers began to itch to touch him. She clenched her fists.

“I would like the record to show that I did not ask you to do this,” she murmured, her eyes glued to his gorgeous body.

“You didn’t not ask me to do this, though.”

“That’s a double negative, Oliver.”

“Okay, well, if you’re not interested and I can’t convince you, then I’ll just put this back on,” he said, reaching for his shirt.

Her hand lashed out before she could even think about doing it, stopping him. “Oliver, wait.”

He grinned. “Gotcha. So, do you prefer the left side of the bed or the right? Because I sleep on the right side but I’m willing to give it up if it makes you feel more at home.”

This man. “Say we do this. We need some ground rules.”

“Like what?”

Felicity dragged her eyes up to meet his, needing to focus on something other than those rippling abs. “No relationship. No feelings. No getting jealous or possessive or anything like that.”

“I can do that,” he promised. Felicity raised an eyebrow at him. “I swear!”

“Okay. I can too. We’re just two friends, consenting adults, who happen to be single and will be enjoying each other’s company.”

“Is that what the kids call it these days?”

“Oliver…”

“Okay, deal.” His hungry eyes were still on her and Felicity could feel her underwear dampening under the extra awareness his gaze was raising in her.

“So, when do you want to do this?” she asked, fighting not to fidget.

“No time like the present,” he told her, reaching out and toying with the collar of her shirt. She fought a blush.

“Oliver, are you sure? You don’t want to take some time to think about this first?”

He raised an eyebrow at her, still calm. God, it was unnerving. “Do you need time to think about this, Felicity?”

She let her gaze drift down, over the hard planes of his chest, lingering on his biceps. Her core throbbed. “No, I’m good.”

“Really?”

She stood up and gestured for him to do the same. “You wanna do this in here or in your bedroom. Where is your bedroom?” She looked around his apartment, noting a couple hallways.

“Bedroom,” he said and Felicity set off in the direction he indicated. He followed after her. “Felicity…”

His bedroom was the end of a short hallway and it was easily as large as the living room had been. There was a wall of floor to ceiling windows that afforded the same gorgeous view. His bed, a monstrous thing, dominated the space. Everything was very modern and masculine, exactly what she expected from him, actually.

“You’re serious?” he asked her.

Felicity blew out a breath. “Oliver, yes. I’m single and alone and horny and in a new city. When my only friend, who happens to be very attractive, says he’s up for some sex with no strings attached, yeah, I’m seriously interested in that. Now get naked and get in that bed. First things first? I like to be on top.”

Oliver just gaped at her for a moment, that same dark look in his eyes. It made her feel bold, which was her only excuse for why she reached for the hem of the shirt she was wearing and pulled it over her head. “Tit for tat,” she said with a shrug.

He snapped out of it, stalking towards her, eyes hot. He stopped a foot away and gestured at her bra. “Not entirely. You said tit for tat, I see no tit.”

“Oh my god, Oliver,” she said, unable to prevent a giggle from slipping out. “That’s awful.”

“You’re welcome. But here, let me help you out a little…”

He stepped closer and reached around her, flicking her bra closure open with one flick of his fingers. The band fell loose around her and she grabbed at the front, waiting until he backed up again to remove her hands and let the bra fall down her arms before tossing it aside.

Oliver’s eyes feasted on her, making her heart pound and more heat pool between her thighs. She grinned at him. “There’s your tit. Happy now?”

“Thrilled,” he replied hoarsely.

“How about we do this last part together? On the count of three.”

He nodded shortly, his fingers already undoing the button and zipper on his jeans. Hers were hooked in the sides of her own pants. She counted to three and then pushed her pants down, underwear and all. Oliver did the same and they both kicked the garments away at the same time, their eyes preoccupied with one another.

He was hung. There was no other way to describe the hardening manhood she saw between his legs. Briefly, she noted the toned musculature of the rest of his body, firm thighs and enticing “v” of his hips, before focusing back on that truly magnificent cock. She hadn’t even had him in her yet and she could already tell he put every other man she’d been with to utter shame.

Oliver was studying her just as intently, his gaze feeling like a physical caress over her curves. She shifted from foot to foot, not nervous so much as excited.

“You look fantastic,” he told her.

“Ditto,” she replied breathlessly.

“Any likes or dislikes? Before we do this?” he asked, his fingers twitching at his sides as though itching to touch her. She knew the feeling.

“Uhm, I have this one spot under my right ear that just drives me wild.”

His eyes flared. “Noted. I would rather not kiss on the lips, if it’s okay with you.”

Felicity nodded. “I’ve seen Pretty Women. Too intimate, correct?”

“Correct. I also really like foreplay.”

That surprised her. “Really? Don’t most guys say that they’d rather just get right to it?”

Oliver shrugged. “I like getting each other really revved up before the… main event.”

“That makes sense. Okay, let’s see. Oh! Don’t mess with the spots behind my knees. Violently ticklish.”

He looked a little surprised, but nodded. “Okay. I like having the lights on.”

“Scared of the dark?” she teased him.

“I like to see what I’m doing,” he clarified with a wink.

“Fair enough,” she said and she’d barely finished speaking before he was on her. Those massive arms of his encircled her, yanking her against his firm, hot body. His lips immediately latched on to the spot underneath her ear, tongue laving and teeth nibbling and her knees promptly went weak.

“Ohh,” she moaned. “God, yes, Oliver.”

He didn’t reply, simply hoisted her up as though she were as light as a feather and carried her over to the bed. He set her down but instead of climbing on after her, as she’d expected, he moved to the end of the bed and climbed on from there.

Felicity pushed upon her elbows, looking down at him. “What are you doing?”

“Foreplay,” he replied with a wink.

She raised an eyebrow. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing. I’m a very discerning customer.,” she purred.

“Oh don’t you worry.” He kissed up her leg, nudging as he went so she spread them further. Once he reached the apex, he began to thoroughly kiss and nibble at the very inside of her thigh, the spot where her legs joined her pelvis, all around but still avoiding that spot in the middle. The spot that was weeping, aching to be touched, to be filled. Felicity squirmed, her eyelids growing heavy.

“Oliver…” she whined.

“Yes, Felicity?” he murmured, dragging his lips up and over her hip

Growling, she reached down and grabbed his hair, stilling him and snapping his eyes to hers. “Quit fucking around and lick my pussy.”

His grin was positively devilish. “Yes, ma’am.”

She relaxed her hold on him and he got right to work, licking up her seam, dipping his tongue inside before using the very tip to flick at her clit, one of his long fingers thrusting inside of her until she was writhing on the comforter.

“Yes! Just like that! Faster! Faster, Oliver!”

He obliged. She proceeded to come, hard and fast, shaking as he licked her through the release.

“Holy shit,” she gasped at his ceiling. Oliver flopped down next to her and she turned to see him grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Proud of that, are you?”

“Yes. I feel that was a record, to be honest.”

She sat up again and swatted his firm bicep. “Hey! I told you it’d been a long time for me. I was saving that up.”

“I’m not saying that was a bad thing!” he protested, stilling grinning.

“Well, let’s just see if you can pull it off again. Let’s get to the main event,” she said. But before she could climb on top of it, he held up a finger.

“Wait, just a moment.” He jumped up and off the bed, headed towards what she assumed was the en suite. Felicity admired the view of his very bare ass as he went.

“Where are you going!” she cried after him. “Hey! Get in here!”

“That’s what she said,” Oliver replied easily, reentering the room. He brandished a roll of condoms. He tore one off, throwing the rest onto the nightstand.

“Really, Oliver? ‘That’s what she said’ jokes don’t work when the sexual innuendo is precisely what I’m referring to. Get. In. Here.”

She watched as he rolled the condom onto his fantastically impressive dick. When he was done, she indicated the bed.

“Great, now lie down.”

“Bossy,” he muttered, complying immediately. “I like it.”

“I can tell,” she said with a smirk. She climbed on, swinging one leg over him, and leaning down over his chest. She kissed the hard planes of muscles, flicking at his nipples with her tongue before reaching down between her legs to grasp his cock in her hand.

Oliver gasped, but kept his eyes steady on hers as she slowly sunk down onto him, his cock stretching and filling her as she moved ever so slowly, savoring every inch. And oh, how many inches there were to enjoy. Felicity shivered as she settled on him. She remained there, leaning forward to kiss at his neck before taking his earlobe in her mouth, biting ever so gently.

“Jesus, Felicity,” he groaned. “Move already.”

“Now who’s bossy?” she asked, lifting a brow. But she sat up and began to rock her hips. Oliver threw his head back and grasped her hips tightly in his hands.

“Faster, Felicity,” he urged.

This time, she was the one who complied to the order as she lifted up and slammed back down before settling into a steady motion that had them both gasping each other’s names.

But Felicity suddenly realized she didn’t want it to end. She wanted to prolong it. Oliver’s hips were jumping when she pushed off of him.

“What?” he cried.

“Let’s do it this way,” she said, getting onto her hands and knees and leveling a look at him. He lifted his eyebrows. “Really?”

“Yes, really, Oliver.”

“I feel like that position is demeaning to you.”

“Shut up and assume the position, Oliver.”

He moved quickly, eagerly, making her chuckle. “Alright, you asked for it,” he said before grabbing one of her hips and slamming into her.

She cried out. “Oh! God, yes. Hard, like that!”

“Fucking hell,” he ground out as he pumped into her. Sweet mercy, he felt enormous in this position. Felicity grasped the bedspread as she pushed back to meet his powerful thrusts.

“Good, yeah?” she gasped out.

“Yes… shit! Felicity...!” With a loud growl, he pulled out of her and it was her turn to cry out a protest.

“I was almost there, Oliver!”

“I just remembered,” he said, grasping the root of his cock and squeezing, “you said you like to be on top.”

“Oh hell,” she groaned.

Oliver scooted forward, sitting up at the end of the bed. Felicity hopped off the bed and came around to his lap, turning around as she straddled him, tossing a saucy wink over her shoulder at him.

“Really? Reverse cowgirl?”

“Are you complaining?”

“Nope,” he replied firmly. She laughed.

This time, they really went at it. Felicity bounced for all she was worth and Oliver’s hands remained busy, cupping her breasts, gripping her hips, caressing her clit… Before long, she knew there was no more delaying her orgasm.

“Shit, I’m coming!” she cried out. Her body seemed to implode, cresting the wave and breaking apart into a billion different explosions of light that she felt throughout her entire body, clear to her fingertips.

“That’s it!” Oliver coaxed. “God, you feel amazing. Shit!”

She was still vibrating from her release when she felt Oliver follow her into bliss, his body clenching, his cock twitching inside her as he filled the condom. Oliver’s groans echoed off the walls of his enormous bedroom.

“Holy shit,” she murmured.

Oliver used the last of his strength to maneuver them around to his bed where they collapsed in a heap of tangled limbs.

“That was… wow.”

Felicity very much agreed. Wow.

“Here, let me take care of this real quick. Be right back,” he said, gesturing to the condom. She nodded briefly as he got up and padded across the room to the en suite again.

Instead of admiring his ass again, this time her brain was immediately filled with every awful doubt in the book. What the hell had just happened? She’d had sex; dirty, wonderful, earth-shattering sex with her best friend here in Starling. How could she look him in the eye after this? How could they go on as if he hadn’t just given her the two best orgasms she’d ever had? It was impossible!

They promised each other no feelings. But how could they do something like that and not have any feelings? She didn’t know what she was feeling right now but she’d be damned if it was purely platonic.

And, god help her, she wanted to do it again.

When Oliver exited the en suite a moment later, she was shimmying back into her underwear. “Making a quick getaway?” he asked her.

Felicity glanced at him as she picked up her bra, trying to keep her eyes off his body and on his face. “I thought I’d head home. You know, itch scratched and all.” She cleared her throat as she straightened, turning to put her bra back on. “Thank you for that, by the way.”

There was a pause, heavy, and she winced as she imagined the look on his face. “Yeah, no problem.”

She couldn’t read the tone of his voice. It was neutral, which wasn’t quite like him. “I mean, I’d stay but none of that relationship stuff, right?” she asked, keeping it light.

“Yeah.”

She zipped up her jeans and reached for her shirt. “But uh… maybe we can do brunch tomorrow? That same place as last time?”

“Uh… sure, yeah.”

Felicity turned around and found Oliver wearing a pair of sweatpants and sitting on the edge of the bed, watching her with a strange look on his face. He’d never looked at her quite like that before. She felt horrible.

“So uhh…. See you tomorrow? 11 am?”

He nodded. “Yeah, that works. You want me to walk you to the door?”

“Pfft. No need. I can find it,” she said. She felt like she should kiss him or something but, no, he didn’t want kisses. So she just stuck her hand out to him instead.

Oliver looked at it for a moment before he leaned forward and took her hand, shaking it.

Felicity snatched it back, feeling nearly overwhelmed with awkwardness. She gestured at the bedroom door. “I’m gonna… go. Uh… thanks again!”

Then, she turned tail and fled. Like the coward she was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...... THAT happened! 😉 Thoughts?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With their arrangement, not to mention their friendship, on shaky ground, Oliver and Felicity have to decide how they want things to continue between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't post an update last week because it very much didn't feel like the time. I'm still not sure it's the time. But I got to wondering.... when is it ever the time? It's been supremely difficult to concentrate on anything other than the news right now. This story is already written, which is really the only reason I have an update to post at all. I haven't really been able to write anything for nearly two weeks now. If you're not ready to read this update, please... put it off to the side until you are. My fic update can absolutely wait if your heart and mind is not on anything regarding fandom right now. I do understand. 
> 
> But I'm posting this update anyhow because maybe people need a break from signing petitions and having difficult conversations with their family. If you're looking for a break, then maybe this update can help be your break. If you don't want a break right now, that's okay too. 
> 
> Last thing: Black lives matter. Always. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. This fight isn't over for anyone, not even close. 💜

Oliver felt more than a little off kilter as he left the building to meet Felicity for brunch the next morning. He hated that he felt off kilter. This was exactly what both of them had been worried about, feeling strange in each other’s presence. Which wasn’t to say he hadn’t enjoyed himself.

Because, holy hell, had he ever enjoyed himself.

Somehow, improbably, sex with Felicity had been better than he ever could have expected. She was fun and adventurous and sexy and dirty… all the things that made an absolutely phenomenal lay.

But then she’d left and he’d felt weird about it. And he still felt weird. He could tell she felt weird too. It was a lot of weirdness. He hated it.

These thoughts swirled in his head as he walked down the street, taking in the early summer breeze that blew through the streets of downtown Starling, heading towards the brunch place Felicity would be meeting him at.

Oliver was just crossing the street when he saw a familiar figure walking towards him. It was Helena. And she was with someone, a man. Her arm was looped through his, her head was thrown back in laughter at something he’d said to her. She didn’t even notice Oliver as they passed.

He continued down the street, feeling more out of sorts than ever. It wasn’t that he was jealous or that he even really missed Helena. But he’d felt something, seeing her happy with someone else. She had looked so content. He wished he had that right now. Instead, he had an awkward fuck buddy.

Wait no, maybe he didn’t even have that. Because he was virtually certain that after the end of last night, Felicity would want to call a halt to things. And he wasn’t sure he would disagree with that.

Shit. What a complicated mess.

Felicity was already waiting at the restaurant, sitting at a table near the windows. She was looking outside as he entered and he had a moment to just look at her before she noticed him. She wore another one of her infamous sundresses, like the one she’d worn on the last day of their first weekend together. Her hair was pulled back into a loose but artfully sloppy bun, with wispy tendrils curling around her neck. Her shoulders were displayed in this outfit and, god help him, he loved shoulders.

Biting his lip to ward off the twitching in his pants, Oliver moved towards the table and Felicity looked over at his approach. As he’d feared, her smile was stiff and forced.

“You made it,” she said, sounding relieved, and he wondered if she’d expected he wouldn’t show up at all.

“Of course I did,” he replied. He wanted to lean towards her, kiss her cheek, but instead he dropped into the chair opposite hers. “Did you already order?”

“Not yet. Just coffee. I was considering the eggs benedict this time.”

“It’s really good here. Their hollandaise is almost as good as mine. I think I might do the belgian waffles.”

She hummed. The table fell silent, until their waitress appeared a moment later and took their orders, pouring him a cup of coffee before she left.

Then, silence again.

This was unbearable. “We need to talk,” he said, partially just to break the awful silence.

“Yes, we do,” she rushed to say.

He didn’t want to have to be the one to say it. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking maybe that was a mistake.”

The air rushed out of him. Was that relief or disappointment? “I was thinking the same thing.”

“It’s not that it wasn’t good.”

“No, absolutely not. It was great.”

“The best, even.”

“The best?” His heart thudded. “I-I mean… thank you. Yes. The best for me too.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you just saying that because I said it first and you’re being polite?”

“No, Felicity. It’s true.” Oliver sighed. “You see, that’s the problem. I don’t want us to have to tiptoe around each other like that! To be polite. That’s the kind of shit you have to do in a relationship.”

She groaned. “Oh god, I totally agree. It’s exhausting.”

“See, that’s what I like about us. We cut the bullshit,” he told her. “And it feels like, today… that there’s bullshit that wasn’t there before.”

“I know,” she moaned, pressing her hands over her eyes. “Make it stop.”

Oliver chuckled. “So maybe not having sex is the best answer here. So we can go back to being awesome friends.”

“Yeah,” she said but he could see she was reluctant. Her teeth bit into her lip and he fought the need to shift in his seat at the sight. “God, but the sex though. We’re back to square one on that particular problem.”

“That’s true,” he admitted. “The sex was amazing, Felicity.”

“But I can’t be awkward with you. I don’t want that, we’re too good together… as friends.”

“I agree.” Oliver sighed. “So, we stay friends but ditch the sex.”

Felicity nodded. “I think that’s the only way.”

She didn’t look exactly happy about it, however, and he didn’t either. “I’ll miss the sex though,” he admitted.

“God, yeah.” She bit her lip again and Oliver felt his blood rush traitorously. “I really wish the friends with benefits thing had worked.”

“Me too.” His gaze lingered on her shoulders, how her hair brushed over the rounded curves.

“It’s a shame,” he said, not tearing his eyes away.

“Where am I gonna get my itch scratched now?” she lamented.

He wanted very badly to scratch her itch. Repeatedly. Oliver cleared his throat. “It’s a problem.”

His mind was no longer on the conversation. He’d completely lost the thread of what they were talking about. Everything in him was focused on everything about her. Part of that was because he could see the way she was watching him and if he wasn’t mistaken, she looked hungry, and not for eggs benedict.

They were interrupted, for better or worse, by the arrival of their food. They ate, chatting about mundane things, the usual light conversation they shared. Oliver wasn’t able to shake that awareness of her, though. He’d seen her naked, for crying out loud. He’d tasted her arousal, brought her to a crashing orgasm, felt her inner walls squeezing his cock… he couldn’t forget those things in one day. He doubted he could forget those things in a lifetime.

When they were finished, Felicity pushed her plate aside with a sigh. “I can’t, Oliver.”

“Can’t what?”

“Stop thinking about it,” she admitted.

“Felicity…” Was that his voice? Deep and throaty and longing… god, he needed to get a grip.

“I need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back,” she said quickly, getting up from her chair and hurrying to the restrooms in the back of the restaurant. Oliver waited a moment before he got up and followed after her.

The women’s bathroom was small, two stalls and a sink area. She was standing at the sink, patting some water on her neck when he let himself in. Whirling around, her eyes were wide. “Oliver! You can’t be in here.”

“Felicity,” he said as he crossed to her. He followed his deepest urges and pulled her to him by the hips. “I’m not ready to throw in the towel.”

“Me either,” she agreed, quickly.

“We can work past the awkwardness,” he told her.

She nodded quickly. “Yes, we can.”

He bent towards her, kissing up her neck. She let out the most adorable, hottest little moan, a sound that made his blood rush hotly through him, settling in his groin.

“Fuck, I want you,” he murmured as he kissed around her jaw to the other side of her neck.

“Oliver… yes…”

No complaints from her, apparently.

He drew back, pleased to see that her eyes were dark with want. “But I’m not doing bathroom sex with you.”

“Aww,” she said, an adorable little pout puffing out her generous lips.

Oliver chuckled. “Not this bathroom, at any rate. We should get the check.”

She nodded again. “Yes, we should.”

She walked out of the bathroom and he followed her, not caring if anyone saw them leaving together. Let them believe what they wanted, it was more or less true and he wasn’t interested in feeling any shame about it.

In fact, Oliver wasn’t interested in waiting for the check, either. When they reached their table, he threw down a few bills from his wallet; more than enough to cover their bill plus a healthy tip. Felicity raised an eyebrow but didn’t question anything. She nodded towards the door and he followed her outside the restaurant.

“Where are we going?” he asked once they were on the sidewalk.

“My place is closer,” she said.

“Good point.Your place it is.”

Oliver had her up against the door the moment they closed it behind them. He hiked her up, her long legs wrapping around his waist as he attacked her neck. Felicity arched against him, rubbing against his hardening erection, her fingers in his hair and her nails scratching his scalp deliciously.

“Remind me where your bedroom is,” he mumbled in between nibbles at her neck and shoulder.

She waved blindly over his shoulder and Oliver turned them, carting her down the hallway she’d indicated. Her door was partially closed so he gave it a gentle kick, causing it to swing open. Her bed lay beyond, wrought iron bed frame and fluffy white bedding beckoning him forth.

He set her down next to the bed, intending to help her get that tantalizing sundress off but Felicity had other ideas. She pushed at his shoulder until he sat on the edge of the bed.

“Felicity…?” he asked, a little confused and a lot disoriented.

But her intentions became clear right away when she sunk to her knees before him and attacked the belt at his waist. He batted her hands away and rid himself of his jeans himself while Felicity pulled her dress off over her head and tossed it aside.

When he was bare, he sat back down and she reached for him again. “Wait,” he said, halting her. “Can you take off your bra too?”

She grinned saucily at him. “I like the way you think,” she murmured as she complied, tossing the scrap of lace and satin aside. His gaze was riveted to her breasts, tipped with rosy pink nipples. Fuck, she was perfect.

“I’m a guy, what can I say?” he said, a little hoarsely.

“Oh I get it, completely. Who doesn’t want to stare at breasts while getting orally pleasured?” Her smile was feline as she reached for him again, stroking his aching cock with sure fingers.

“Uh, we’re going to revisit that statement later… oh shit, that feels good.”

“Yeah?” she replied. “How about this?”

Oliver looked down in time to watch as Felicity engulfed the head of his cock into the hot, wet confines of her mouth. Her red lips stretched around him while her tongue lapped at the tip. Bolts of sensation shot through him and he couldn’t even begin to bite back the groan of pure ecstasy that bubbled up out of his throat.

“Fuck! Holy shit… Felicity!”

She merely hummed around his aching flesh as she took him deeper… and then deeper still. He felt the tip of his cock bump against the back of her throat and then… she swallowed, her throat squeezing around him, impossibly tight. The noises she was making, swallowing him down, were filthy and carnal and the most fantastic sounds he’d ever heard in his god-blessed life.

Felicity tugged on his hips, bringing him further to the edge of the bed and Oliver willingly and eagerly complied. His legs were spread as her thumbs massaged his inner thighs in time with the sucking of her mouth around him. He rocked a little into her mouth, an action that she readily accepted, as evidenced by her moaning around his length, sending vibrations down his shaft and right into his throbbing prostate.

She didn’t slow her actions in the slightest. If anything, Felicity sped up, her hand joining her mouth in squeezing his cock. He could feel his release boiling up in his balls, threatening to shoot at any moment.

“I’m gonna... Fuck, Felicity, I’m gonna come!” he cried out, reaching for her head.

She sucked him harder, faster and he grabbed her, thrusting a few times deep into her mouth before erupting into her mouth, shooting his cum down her throat in hot, pulsating spurts.

Sweaty and spent, he flopped back onto the bed when Felicity finally released him. For several long moments, Oliver was aware of nothing outside of the pounding of his own heart and the burning of his lungs as he fought to come down from the most intense orgasm he’d ever had in his life.

Felicity reappeared a short while later and he realized she’d gotten up and left the room briefly. To do what, he had no idea and he was far too wrung out to ask any questions. Instead, he laughed weakly as she stretched out beside him on the bed.

“That good, huh?” she asked, mimicking his response to her orgasm the night before.

“Good is a shit word,” he moaned. “Holy shit, Felicity I think you sucked out my soul.”

She shrugged casually. “I am a woman of many talents.”

“Shit, if I’d known that was one of them, we would have done that the first weekend you came to visit,” he told her, only half joking. “I’m going to need to step up my game.”

“You’re not too shabby,” she said. “I can give you some pointers if you like.”

Oliver turned on his side to face her. “That reminds me. You like to stare at breasts while being orally pleasured?”

Felicity threw back her head and laughed. “I knew you wouldn’t let that go. Yes, as a matter of fact. I’ve been known to appreciate a set of jugs.”

He propped himself up on an elbow. “I’m going to need to hear more about this.”

She rolled her eyes but was grinning. “You’re such a guy. College was a time of experimentation and I discovered I’m bisexual,” she explained. “I had a thing with this girl, we dated for about six months my sophomore year. There were a few other girls but those were mostly drunken makeouts at frat parties or whatever.”

“Fuck, that’s hot.”

Felicity reached up, offering him a spectacular view of her tits for a brief moment before slamming a pillow into his head. He grabbed it away from her and used it to rest his head on. She stuck her tongue out at him and he reciprocated before they both dissolved into laughter.

“Okay, it’s your turn to give up a sexy secret,” she told him when they’d calmed a little.

“Alright, fine. If you must know, I’ve fooled around with other guys before,” he admitted. Felicity’s eyebrows went up.

“Really? You aren’t just saying that because I said I’ve done the same thing, are you? You better not be teasing me!”

“What am I, 12? No, it’s true. My best friend Tommy and I used to get up to it back during our misspent youths.”

“Just Tommy? Or were there other guys too?”

“There was this one guy I met at Princeton. But it hardly counts as a relationship, more like a lost weekend sort of situation. And Tommy and I didn’t really date either, we just sort of would often hook up when we were drunk and high.”

“I haven’t met Tommy yet but I’m going to take this to mean he’s pretty hot.”

Oliver whistled, low and long. “Fuck hot. He’s a shameless flirt too.”

“So did you guys ever… you know… do it?”

“Now who’s 12? No, we didn’t. He did give me the occasional blowjob though. Not as good as you, if you must know. It was mostly hand-jobs and making out.”

“What about Princeton guy?”

He felt his cheeks heating, not out of embarrassment but from the memory of it. “We did. Plus blowjobs and all the rest of it.”

One of her eyebrows lifted. “‘All the rest of it’? C’mon, you gotta give me some deets.”

“Why don’t I load up pornhub and just show you?” he tossed back. “Or I can grill you on what you and your hookup did.”

“Oh, I’ll more than happily tell you. In vivid detail,” she said, winking cheekily at him.

His breath caught in his throat. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.” She levered herself up and leaned across him, kissing his chest. He could feel his cock twitching, finally showing signs of life again.

“Like… gah… what?”

“We would eat each other out. All the time,” Felicity murmured, laving his nipples until they were stiff and throbbing. The images that sprung into his mind, of Felicity and this other woman, made his mind race and his pulse pound. “I’d sit on her face, or she’d sit on mine. Or we’d do each other at the same time. It was hot as hell.”

“Fucking hell, Felicity,” he groaned. “Let me do that. Sit on my face.”

She kissed up his neck before biting lightly on his chin. “Thought you’d never ask.”

Felicity quickly kicked off her underwear and then maneuvered into position and Oliver assisted, gripping her hips when she hovered over him. “Are you su-oh!”

Before she could get her full sentence out, Oliver yanked her down onto his mouth. He gave Felicity everything he had, which was the least he could considering the earth-shaking blowjob she’d given him.

He went harder than he’d ever gone before when eating a woman out, using tongue, his teeth, his lips, his nose, his chin… In the past, he’d always been gentle when going down on a woman. He’d tried to be romantic and generous and caring. There was none of that happening here. This was purely carnal and his only intention was to deliver as much pleasure as he possibly could.

When Felicity started to rock her hips, her moaning voice echoing off the walls of her bedroom, Oliver used his hands on her hips to encourage her to move more above him. He knew what he wanted and he trusted she wanted the same damn thing.

His hunch proved correct and within moments, Felicity was full on riding his face, her fingers wrapped around her wrought iron bed frame to help her keep her balance. Her hips thrust down onto him wildly and Oliver never let up, not even for a second. Not even when his tongue grew stiff. He kept going until Felicity screeched out her release, her legs convulsing on either side of his head. Her release gushed, pouring down his throat, and he drank it in greedily.

Then, Oliver slipped out from under her and helped her ease down onto the bed. Her cries became pants which became giggling laughter as her body came down off the high.

“Oliver Queen!” she cried. “Fucking hell! Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

He chuckled. “I was inspired.”

“Indeed you were!” Felicity continued to breathe hard for another minute and Oliver laid there, admiring her ceiling and feeling more content, and more turned on, than he had in many, many years.

“You know what we need now?” he murmured after a few moments.

“Hmm?”

“A shower.”

“You’ve been wanting in my shower ever since you first saw this place,” she accused him.

“Guilty,” he hummed. “I want to fuck you in that shower, Felicity.”

“Well, then… you know what I say?”

“What’s that?”

“Last one in is a rotten egg!”

Felicity was up off the bed in a flash, running towards her en suite with her delightfully round rear end bouncing tantalizingly. Oliver growled, delighted as he scrambled to chase after her.

What followed was the absolutely dirtiest shower sex he’d ever had in his whole damn life. And it was safe to say that his and Felicity’s friends with benefits arrangement was very much back on.

***

Whatever had caused the initial awkwardness between them after that first time having sex had vanished utterly and completely after the second time. And third time. And fourth and fifth… If anything, their friendship only solidified. Nothing was too taboo between them. If Oliver did something during sex that she didn’t like? Felicity didn’t hesitate to tell him. If she tried a move that he didn’t enjoy, he let her know. There was no tip toeing around one another, which is exactly what she’d hoped would happen.

Then there was the sex. Holy shit, they had sex that Felicity had only previously read about in books. Oliver was adventurous and skilled, an utterly fantastic combination. And his stamina… he could go for hours and then want her just as badly the very next day. They had sex so much more often than she and Ray ever had. With her ex, they might make love twice a week, usually on weekends. With Oliver? It was darn near every day.

It was glorious.

Sometimes he pestered her during work. Not a whole lot, but enough so that her thoughts were often full of him and his teasing, sexy banter. And sometimes, she would text him naughty things when she knew he had a big meeting going on. Just to throw him. Which always worked like a charm. A couple times, he’ dragged her back to his place during lunch for a quick romp in the hay. Other times, she took him to her place after work and they tested the durability of the many surfaces in her apartment.

Not everything they did was related to sex, however. Oliver introduced her to his friends, including the now-infamous Tommy Merlyn. She also met Sara Lance, Ronnie Raymond and got to know John Diggle on a more casual basis. They all quickly became her friends as well. The group of them often met for drinks or had a game night or participated in some activity or another together.

Tommy was every bit as gorgeous as Felicity knew he must be in order to catch Oliver’s eyes. He was also a relentless flirt and Felicity particularly enjoyed how crabby Tommy’s harmless flirting would make Oliver. She was careful not to tease him too much about it, but his glaring expression was pretty damn funny. Sara and her would often excuse themselves with the sole purpose of cracking up about it.

Sara Lance was absolutely her type of girl, a fact that Oliver found particularly interesting when she said as much to him after meeting her. He grilled her about it afterwards, clearly wanting to know just how much Sara was her type. Felicity snorted but had to admit the other blonde was drop dead gorgeous in a very accessible sort of way. Her smile was big and welcoming, her aqua eyes glittered with invitation and her verve for life was infectious.

Ronnie was a bit of a goofball, but he was also extremely intelligent which meant she could have all kinds of interesting conversations with him that she couldn’t really have with any of the others. He was very attractive but then, none of Oliver’s friends were unattractive. Everyone looked like they could have stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine or out of a CW television show.

John Diggle was far and away the most stoic and serious of the bunch. He was a good five years older than everyone else too, which leant him a bit of maturity that the others lacked from time to time, especially Tommy. But he was kind and had a good heart and Felicity could tell right off that he was the one most likely to have her back at any given moment, Oliver aside of course.

John also had a wife and a new baby at home. Sometimes Lyla joined them, sometimes she didn’t. Ronnie was between relationships at the time, which meant he was constantly on the prowl. Sara was seeing this scary looking woman named Nyssa that worked at the gym Oliver and Dig often went to. She sometimes came along too, but whenever she did, she took the title of Most Stoic away from Dig without a fight. Tommy wasn’t in a relationship either and there didn’t seem to be a person, man, woman or otherwise that he didn’t actively pursue whenever they went out to a bar or anything like that. Oliver said it was because Tommy had a high sex drive.

Felicity thought Oliver was one to talk.

All of their friends seemed to know about her arrangement with Oliver, even though no one really said anything. Sara had hinted about it once, asking Felicity if Oliver’s shoe size was an accurate corollary to another part of his anatomy. Felicity had promptly snorted the margarita she’d been drinking at the time and had been saved from having to answer.

But the answer, obviously, was yes.

One night, Oliver was over at her apartment after work and they’d just finished some asian take-out from the place down the street that Felicity had grown to love in the weeks since she’d been living in Starling.After they finished eating, Oliver pounced on her, pinning her back against the sofa cushions as he removed her clothes, kissing down her body and making her squirm and laugh as he hit all her ticklish spots. He kicked off his own shoes and jeans and she peeled off his shirt and then he was on her again, kissing across her clavicle before sucking one of her nipples into his mouth.

Felicity arched into him, moaning. “Yes… that feels so good…”

Suddenly, Oliver stopped, pulling away from her, muttering a curse.

Her eyes flew open. “What is it?”

“Your cat,” he said.

Felicity turned her head and saw Amelia was perched on the back of her sofa, watching them with a mild expression on her kitty face. She grinned. “Don’t mind her. She’s just snooping.”

Oliver narrowed his eyes at the cat before looking back to her. “It’s really creepy being watched by a cat while doing this,” he said. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

“Seriously?” 

“You try being sexy with a cat staring at you! Or a dog! I once had a dog panting at me while I was fucking this one girl and it gave me nightmares for weeks.”

Felicity burst out laughing while Oliver scowled. He moved to shoo the cat and then recoiled in horror when Amelia simply licked his hand without budging an inch.

“Gah! Why is her tongue like that?!”

Felicity was dying of laughter. “What do you mean?” she gasped out.

“It’s like it’s got little knives all over it. Is your cat trying to stab me with her tongue?”

“I’m pretty sure no one in this apartment is trying to murder you with their tongue,” she said, grinning. “Which is more’s the pity, if you ask me.”

Oliver focused back on her, his cocky smirk back. “I’ll show you murdering with a tongue,” he said.

“Promise?”

In the end, she wasn’t exactly murdered but she did feel rather boneless and content, so there was that. Plus, Oliver and Amelia made up when she curled in his lap for a snooze afterward while they watched a movie on her tv.

All in all, she had to say that things were going pretty damn well between them. They went to concerts and art shows and movies and out to dinner and her life was more full than it had ever been before. Starling quickly became home to her and for that, she was grateful. She had friends, a fantastic job, a great apartment and there was very little else she could have asked for in life right then.

And if she had a little yearning now and then, usually at the end of an evening with Oliver or when they lay gasping in one of their beds, sweat cooling on their bodies, pleasure zapping through her limbs, well. That was to be expected, right? It was so easy to mistake sex for deeper emotions, Felicity knew that all too well. Which meant she was extra ready to recognize it and quash it before she blurted out something she would regret.

Nope. That was just the endorphins talking.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nearly six months after their arrangement began, Oliver and Felicity are still enjoying all the benefits with none of the strings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well, taking care of themselves, wearing their masks, washing their hands, signing petitions and toppling the patriarchy. 😉 
> 
> I'm back with another update. It's full of all kinds of fluffy Olicity things (and some smutty things, let's be honest). I hope you all enjoy!

Light snow was falling from the sky but Oliver strolled down Hyde Street in the Glades with a smile and a bounce in his step like it was the middle of spring and not late December.

He was on his way to meet his friends for brunch, the first Sunday after Christmas and the first time he would have seen any of them, bar Felicity, since before the holiday. Felicity… well, she’d been over at this place last night. They hadn’t gotten much sleep.

She’d left, as was her usual move, after they were done for the evening. Despite his pleadings, she never wanted to stay over so he’d stopped asking her to. It seemed to be important to her to sleep in her own bed, alone. Oliver didn’t push, but he had to admit he’d like the chance to sleep with her, actually sleep. Maybe someday.

Still, he was as happy and content as he’d been since he was just a kid and he knew that Felicity was largely to credit for that. Their relationship was practically perfect, even now, six months after she’d moved to Starling. If Oliver had known that the secret to a perfect relationship was to skip the romantic bullshit and fuck your best friend, he would have done so a long time ago. But in a way, he felt like this sort of perfect balance could only be achieved with Felicity.

There was just something about her.

Of course, his libido’s satisfaction wasn’t the only upside in his life these days. Things at work were going great. Walter had just told him last week that it was time for him to move up to a more executive vice president position, meaning he would be working directly underneath his stepfather and about a dozen steps closer to being ready to take over the CEO position. He felt ready for it, frankly. And hearing that Walter, a man he really admired, thought so did wonders for his ego.

His social life, outside of the bedroom, was also going great. His friends really loved Felicity and welcomed her easily into their group. As a result, all of them were spending much more time with one another. Oliver felt closer to all of them than he’d been in years. A couple weekends ago, they’d all gone up to the mountains for the weekend to ski and goof off and the last time they’d managed that had been in college. They were already planning to go again in January over the three-day-weekend.

Felicity was terrible at skiing, but that did nothing to dampen her enthusiasm about the trip. Already, Oliver was looking forward to giving her some more private lessons up on the mountain. Tommy had caught them in the middle of one of their lessons last time and hadn’t let up teasing both of them about it ever since.

Oliver barely cared and he didn’t think Felicity did either. The sex was just that good. Honestly, it wasn’t hyperbole to say that sex with Felicity was the best he’d ever had. So good, in fact, that he hadn’t watched any porn in months. That was huge, considering porn had been a mainstay for him since he hit puberty as a teenager. But who needed porn when they had a woman like Felicity, ready and willing to act out whatever fantasy he had brewing in his mind at any given moment? She was lively and adventurous and ready to laugh should things get a little ridiculous. Which they did, quite often.

Laughing with her was almost as fun as the sex. It was a tough call. Of course, the sex was incredible but there was also a lot of satisfaction to be found in being goofy with her. When they weren’t clawing at each other’s clothes, they were having food fights or shouting at some sports event together or laughing at some dumb movie one of them found on cable.

And if maybe, every now and then, Oliver felt a yearning to let three little words slip out of his mouth, he wasn’t about to admit it. No, this arrangement was better left uncomplicated with feelings. Why would he want to potentially ruin the best thing in his life? He didn’t. Which was why he tamped down any softer feelings that arose when they spent time together. It was getting more and more frequent that he had to stifle it, but it was a small price to pay for such a fantastic arrangement.

By the time Oliver arrived at their favorite brunch spot, he had a decent dusting of snow on his shoulders and in his hair. He shook himself out in the doorway before proceeding inside where he easily spotted their group already gathered around their favorite table by the window.

“There he is!” Sara called out. “Were you out there making snow angels or what?”

Everyone else called out their hellos, while Felicity jumped to her feet and came over to him, reaching up to brush the remaining snow out of his hair. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” he replied, his eyes on her pink cheeks and pouting lips. He was beginning to regret not suggesting that they ditch brunch and just have breakfast in at her place. Alone. And preferably naked.

“C’mon,” she said, jerking her head over her shoulder. “I saved you a seat.”

Oliver shrugged out of his coat and draped it over the back of the chair Felicity had nodded to and sat as she returned to her chair, just around the table corner from him.

“You two are gross. Are you sure you’re not in a relationship and just hiding it from us?” Tommy remarked.

“Bite me, Thomas,” Felicity said cheerfully. “You’re just jealous you don’t have such a sweet arrangement.”

Sara and Ronnie hooted while Diggle smirked. Tommy grumbled as he took a long drink of his mimosa. Oliver barely heard his muttered reply, “Maybe.”He chortled as the waitress came over to take his drink order and pour him some coffee.

Brunch progressed as it usually did with the usual conversation. They were just finishing up, in fact, when Felicity suddenly raised her second mimosa (or maybe it was her third?), interrupting everyone’s chatter.

“I want to propose a toast to Oliver,” she announced. She turned to look at him. “Our boy got himself a promotion this week.”

Everyone else raised their glasses and cheered. And then, Oliver felt it. The distinct sensation of someone’s toe creeping up his leg. He looked at Felicity to see her grinning at him, positively devilish. The toe tickled at his ankle, working its way under his pant leg.

Then? She kept talking.

“No longer will Oliver have to slog away in the bowels of QC, doing lowly HR work,” she continued, her voice not betraying one hint of what she was doing as her foot traveled further up his leg.

“Hey,” he interjected. “It wasn’t lowly-EE!” He helped when her foot made the sudden shift to his crotch, pushing at the bulge there that was rapidly hardening.

“So you say,” she replied mildly. “But now, Oliver will be swimming with the big boys up on the executive floors as QC’s newest VP! I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more or has worked harder for it. To Oliver!”

More cheers erupted. “Way to go, man! You’ve earned this,” Dig said.

“Moving on up!” Ronnie agreed, lifting his glass.

“Do you get to hire a hot secretary?” Tommy asked and Sara elbowed him.

Under the table, Felicity continued to nudge him and Oliver’s mind was filled with all sorts of images of Felicity as his secretary, bending over his desk or pressed up against the floor to ceiling windows in his new office. Sweet holy Moses.

He coughed to hide his reaction and choked out a, “Thanks, guys,” before taking a long drink of his mimosa. Felicity removed her foot and then leaned towards him.

“Want to come back to my place after this?” she whispered in his year.

“Fuck, yes,” he growled back.

Felicity chuckled, sitting back in her chair and drinking her own mimosa.

Temptress.

Oliver waved down the waitress. “Check please!” he called to her.

***

Felicity had just returned to her office from her meeting with Walter and a few other of the QC execs regarding her quarterly review when Oliver knocked on the door of her office. He didn’t wait for her answer, but pushed inside, a big grin on his face and a huge bouquet of flowers in his hand.

She lifted an eyebrow. “Who are those for?”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “For you!”

“Why, though?”

“I heard your quarterly review went beautifully; everyone is very impressed with you.” He set the flowers down on her desk and brandished a vase from the paper bag he’d also been carrying. While she watched, he went to the little bar off to the side of her office and filled the vase at the small sink there.

“How’d you know it would go well?” she asked, lifting the flowers and taking a big whiff. They smelled amazing, of course. Oliver had impeccable taste.

“Uhhhhh, because it’s you. You’re killing it, Felicity,” Oliver replied simply as he plucked the flowers from her fingers and dropped them into the vase. He set them on the edge of her desk and then turned his attention to her.

She found herself blushing under his praise. “Thanks, Oliver. That’s really sweet of you.”

He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal but she also saw his smile. Suddenly, she felt in the mood to unwind and have a good time.

“Hey, why don’t you come over tonight after work so we can celebrate? Grab some Big Belly for us to share on your way?” she suggested.

“You had me at ‘celebrate’,” he said, grinning. “The naked kind, I hope?”

“Isn’t it always? Plus, I have an offer you won’t want to refuse.”

“Oh? Well, now I’m curious.”

She reached out and booped him on the nose with her finger. “Good. That’ll ensure you don’t dawdle.”

Felicity hurried home as soon as she could after 5 o’clock to change and tidy up. Her shoes were all over the entry way and the week’s mail was strewn all over the kitchen island. Her bed wasn’t made and an old pizza box sat open on the coffee table in the living room. She cleaned up quickly, taking a moment to admire the framed pictures on her bookcase of her and Oliver and the rest of their friend group over the last six months. So many great memories together.

Felicity took a lightning fast shower, just to wash the day away, before slipping into a pair of shorts and a cropped sweatshirt. She was just finger combing her hair when there was a knock at her door.

Oliver was right on time, brandishing two bags of Big Belly. “YUM!” she exclaimed, taking them from him before lifting on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek in greeting before padding into her kitchen to get out some plates and ketchup. “I was thinking that after we eat, we can do another baking lesson. Make some cupcakes for dessert.”

Oliver followed after her and she caught his eyes on her ass when she turned back around to face him. “We can,” he replied slowly, “but I had some other ideas for dessert.”

“We can do that too,” she promised.

“You mean, we will do that too.”

Oliver had been teaching her the finer points of baking over the last six months. She’d finally mastered flour biscuits all on her own and chocolate chip cookies with Oliver’s help. Hopefully, tonight, she would get a handle on cupcakes.

Among other things.

Things went really well until they were filling the cups with the cupcake batter. That’s when Oliver started getting really handsy and Felicity found she didn’t care to stop his wandering hands. Before she knew it, her top was off and she was perched on the island with Oliver between her legs, lapping at her juices. She arched into his mouth, her hips shaking and her voice hoarse from crying out. God damn, he was good at this.

No sooner had she screamed out her bone shattering release but Oliver had his cock inside her and was thrusting wildly, riding out her orgasm, his cries echoing hers. It was swift and enthusiastic and, frankly, about a million times better than any cupcake.

A short while later, they were curled together on the floor, leaning against the cupboards, catching their respective breath. “That was incredible,” Felicity murmured. It was always incredible. How was it always incredible?

“Do you know how to make cupcakes now?” Oliver asked her and without lifting her head from his chest, she could tell that he was smirking.

“Not even a little,” she said. “But I’m willing to try again if that’s what it takes.”

Oliver snorted softly. “So what was the offer I wouldn’t want to refuse?”

“Hmm?”

“You mentioned today, in your office, you had an offer for me. Care to share?”

Felicity peeled herself away from him, turning slightly so she could see his eyes. “Well, as you know… tomorrow is Saturday.”

“That’s what I hear, yes.”

“I have nothing planned. I don’t think you do either.”

“Nope, not a thing.”

“I was thinking we could have a sex marathon tomorrow. Dawn till dusk, down and dirty shenanigans. See how many positions we can do, how many orgasms, etcetera. Make a game of it.” She’d thought it up during a particularly boring meeting (one of those ones that could have so easily been an email but was just an excuse for some people to seem smart and productive but was really just a waste of everyone’s time) and hadn’t been able to get the notion out of her head ever since.

Oliver’s eyes lit up. “For real? Cuz I’ve been jotting down some ideas for things I’ve been wanting to try…”

Felicity laughed, sudden and sincerely. “Of course you did.”

“And you didn’t?” His eyebrow lifted meaningfully.

A shrug. “Maybe.”

She absolutely did. She kept a list on her phone and added to it whenever the whim hit her.

“So you’re interested?” she asked him.

“Hell, yeah, I’m interested. Here? Or my place?”

“Here, I think.”

“Want me to bring anything?”

He was so thoughtful. Even when planning a sex marathon. Felicity patted his cheek. “Just that fine ass. And maybe some water. We’ll need to stay hydrated, won’t we?”

“Good thinking. And snacks?”

“Oh, I’ll provide those. I went to the warehouse club yesterday so I’m all stocked up.”

“Good. Because we’ll need the energy.”

“Indeed.”

***

Oliver arrived at the ridiculously early hour of 7 am, taking the “dawn” part of her “dawn to dusk” suggestion rather literally but only because the promise of a sex marathon had him hard nearly all night long. He had a hard time sleeping and as soon as the sun started rising, he decided to head over to Felicity’s place.

“You’re lucky I’m so excited for this or I’d slam this door in your face,” Felicity said, stifling a yawn. She opened the door for him to come on in and that’s when he brandished the drink carrier containing… “Coffee!”

Felicity grabbed at it eagerly and Oliver chuckled as he handed the steaming drink over. She drank it, moaning in delight and making the fledgling erection in his jeans swell even further.

To distract himself, he set the carrier down on her island and retrieved his own drink, taking a long sip, savoring the balm of the caffeine.

“You are a saint for bringing this,” Felicity gushed at last, having finished her drink. “And now? I’m ready to jump your bones.”

Oliver had just enough to set his drink down when Felicity launched herself at him. He caught her easily as her legs wrapped around his waist. His hand supported her lightly underneath her ass, his other banded across her back, holding her to him as she attacked his throat with kisses and bites.

“Take me to bed,” she murmured.

“You want to start in the bed?”

Felicity drew back enough to narrow her eyes at him. “Are you going to be picky about this?”

He shrugged, smiling at her. “I’m just saying. I have a lot of ideas for today. The bed is only involved in some of those ideas.”

“So what were you thinking instead?” she asked.

Oliver didn’t reply, but stepped forward until Felicity’s back was up against a pillar that separated the kitchen from the living room. Her eyebrows went up.

“Really?”

He nodded. Then, he slowly let her down so that her body slid down his. His erection went from half hard to fully hard just like that.He snatched one of the condoms he’d stashed in his jeans pocket and handed it to her which she accepted with a snap of her fingers. Then, with her tongue stuck in the corner of her grin, she eased down the zipper of his jeans and then shimmied down, pulling them down with her.

“No boxers today?”

“Didn’t see the point,” he murmured, watching her every move.

“Fair,” she agreed as her hands skated up his legs as she stood again before settling on his cock, her warm hands enveloping his length and stroking it slowly.

Oliver growled, the sensation too good. He ripped off his sweater and the henley he wore beneath it, tossing them to the side and leaving him in just his shoes with his jeans pooled around his ankles.

Felicity’s eyes traveled up his form appreciatively, her gaze warming. “Has anyone told you that you look like a Greek god?” she asked as she continued to let her fingers toy with him.

“Maybe once or twice,” he said on a gasp. “Felicity… let me undress you.”

“You don’t have much work ahead of you,” she pointed out, gesturing at the oversized t-shirt she wore.

Oliver quickly grasped the hem and pulled it up over her head. She was completely and totally bare underneath it. He nearly swallowed his tongue. No matter how many times he saw her like this, the view never got old.

He’d been with many women since he first lost his virginity at the age of sixteen. Tall, leggy, model types were his usual, as evidenced by Helena Bertinelli. Felicity was different from his usual type and once upon a time, he might have counted that against her. But now, after these last six glorious months, he knew that it was what set her apart, made her special.

Felicity was short, petite but also curvy in ways that had him drooling for her. Her ass was generous and lush, her breasts were perfect handfuls, perky and perfectly shaped. Her legs were firm and strong and shapely. She looked like every wet dream he’d ever had and just hadn’t known it until he met her.

“Fuck, Felicity,” he groaned, letting his hands coast over her curves.

That made her grin. “That’s the idea.”

“Get back up here,” he growled, reaching for her. Felicity jumped back into his arms, giggling as he caught her and pressed her back against the pillar. She hissed and arched at the touch of cool metal to her heated skin and Oliver used her movements to roll his hips against hers, making her hiss turn into a moan. 

He heard the tearing of foil as Felicity took the condom he’d given her. He moved back a little, still holding her up but giving her the space she needed to roll the condom down his length. She gave him a hard squeeze after she’d finished, making him curse.

“Ready?” he asked her.

“Fuck me, Oliver.”

He slammed home, filling her in one hard thrust and making her throw her head back, crying out. Her pussy pulled him in, squeezing him tight and it felt amazing. He withdrew and did it again, plunging into her. Over and over again, he thrust in and retreated while Felicity scratched her nails down his back and shouted her encouragement.

Soon, her apartment was filled with her gasps and cries and his moans and curses. He shifted his hold on her, changing the angle of his penetration and Felicity clamped on him like a vice.

“Holy fuck!” she cried. “Right there! Oh my god! Yes, Oliver, yes! Oh, shit!”

He’d found her g-spot and repeatedly thrust his cock against it until Felicity went flying over the edge of her climax. She was wild in his arms, writhing and scratching and screaming out her release and Oliver was powerless to resist following her into oblivion.

Fuck, that felt good.

From there, they snuggled on the sofa together which resulted in a much more leisurely coupling as they spooned together. He filled her from behind, slowly and deeply, enjoying seeing how her desire spiraled up again, how the flush that had retreated from her chest returned and how her breathy sighs turned back into hoarse cries of ecstasy.

Oliver felt like he could easily do this the rest of his life.

They took a break after that to eat. Oliver made them omelets and Felicity pulled out a bottle of champagne to go with the orange juice in her fridge. Mimosas went perfectly with the omelets and the food did wonders to energize him.

It must have energized Felicity too because she suggested they take a shower after they are. Together. In her huge walk-in shower. A half an hour later, Oliver wasn’t so sure how clean they were but god, that shower was positively made for fucking in and no one would ever be able to convince him otherwise. As they dried off, he was already looking forward to the next opportunity to… use it.

After they dried off, Oliver tossed Felicity to the bed and fell on her like a man starved, not like someone who had already fucked three times already. It was early afternoon, however, and the marathon wasn’t quite half over yet. As he suckled at her breasts, Oliver debated what he’d like to do with her next. He had so many ideas and they were positively swimming in his mind at the moment. It all felt like being a kid in a candy store.

“I want to fuck you from behind,” he blurted, the first idea that fully solidified in his arousal-soaked brain.

“Yes…” Felicity rolled over and arched her back, her ass up in the air and Oliver scooted behind her, gripping the globes of her ass in his hands and squeezing, admiring the view.

Oliver leaned over to reach into the drawer on the bedside table for the condoms he knew Felicity kept there.He tore one open and rolled it onto his dick, then positioned himself behind Felicity again. She looked back at him over her shoulder, grinning and lifting her brows.

“You ready?” he asked her, already knowing the answer.

“As I’ll ever be,” she purred.

He slapped his dick against the flesh of her ass, enjoying the thud, sight of his turgid flesh hitting that supple roundness, the wet smack. Felicity pressed back towards him, so that his dick slipped into the valley between her cheeks, rubbing there. He closed his eyes and bit his lip. Fuck, that felt good.

Being inside her would feel better.

He could draw this out but why delay the pleasure for both of them? Gripping his shaft, he aimed and pressed through her puffy lips, burrowing into her tight, wet, heat. Her walls enveloped him, welcoming him. He sighed as he fully seated himself within her.

So good. Felicity’s sweet moans were music to her ears.He fucked her hard, with sure strokes and she loved it. She arched and clawed and called his name. He slapped at her ass a few times which only made her wetter, made her scream, “Yes!” They’d fucked like this before, of course, but not often. Because each time it was so damn powerful.

Afterward, they collapsed in a heap together on top of the covers of her bed. Oliver cocooned Felicity, drawing her body against his. She smiled at him sleepily. “Is it nap time?”

He nodded. “Yes. More later.”

“Mmkay.”

He stayed awake just long enough to watch her drift off to sleep. Curled around her, he slept better than he ever did back at home in his own bed, all alone.

Then there was waking up. Coming to awareness with his senses full of her was everything he’d hoped it would be. Watching her blink her eyes open and smile at him was a sight that he’d remember long after this day was over.

God, he was getting sappy.

“Did you get good rest?” he asked her, reaching up to push a stray lock of hair out of her eyes.

“Mmhmm. And you?”

“Yeah,” he replied, letting his hand travel down, over her shoulder and caressing her breasts. He watched her eyes drift closed again, this time from pleasure than sleepiness. His touch grew bolder and soon he was stroking her between her thighs, delighting in how she parted her legs for him so he could reach all the parts of her he wanted to explore.

Suddenly, Felicity moved, pushing him over onto his back. Oliver was confused until she moved to straddle his chest and started to scoot upwards. He pulled a pillow under his head and then, with his palms on her hips, guided her up until she hovered over his mouth.

Then, he pulled her down, covering her with his lips, penetrating her with his tongue. Felicity began to gyrate, her hips grinding into his face and Oliver rose to the task, lapping at her. He planted his feet on the bed for better leverage as he feasted on her, savoring her sweet essence and humming against her tender flesh.

Felicity’s cries echoed off the walls as she reached her peak and Oliver happily sent her over the edge, catching her as she shook. He pulled her down and felt the wild impulse to kiss her. He stopped himself just in time, her face inches from his, her eyes clouded with lust and pleasure, her lips pouting so temptingly. She stared back at him and he could see the question in her eyes. He held his breath, hanging there on the precipice of making a choice that would change things for them for good.

The moment was interrupted by the clearing of a throat from behind them. Felicity reacted before him, shrieking as she moved away from him, blocking him from the doorway. He struggled to sit up and saw a blonde woman standing in the doorway, her expression surprised but also somehow delighted.

What the heck?

“Mom!” Felicity yelled, shoving a pillow at Oliver for him to cover himself with. “Don’t you knock??”

Wait, what? Mom??


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our adorably clueless couple deals with the fallout of Donna's impromptu visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was just reminded (shoutout to @LiteraLi on twitter!) that it is in fact a Monday and thus I need to actually post this chapter. A quick holler to my good friend and beta @andachippedcup and I have for the update! What happens after Donna interrupts our little pair right after they *nearly* kissed? 
> 
> A lot of things. A lot of things happen. Things happen. A lot. 
> 
> 😈

Felicity was mortified. Her mother had just walked in on her and Oliver, immediately post-coitus (which meant she’d had to have entered her apartment MID-COITUS and lord knew what she’d heard), interrupting decidedly the most intimate moment they’d shared to date. By a long shot. 

Maybe she could just leave the country. Change her name, dye her hair, move to some tropical island somewhere and learn to play the bongos. She could eke out a nice life and forget she ever knew a man named Oliver Queen and a mother named Donna Smoak. 

Felicity put herself in between her mother, who stood just inside her room, a bemused expression on her face, and Oliver who was still most absolutely naked. She pushed the covers at him, hoping he would cover himself up before her mother got any better look at his goods.

“Oliver, put some clothes on,” she hissed over her shoulder at him. 

Oliver was gaping at her mother like a fish out of water. But at Felicity's urging, he refocused on her. “They’re in the living room.” 

“I can go get them for you?” Donna suggested helpfully. 

“Here, cover up with this,” Felicity hissed, pushing the covers at him again. “I’ll go get them.” She took the throw that lay over the end of her bed and pulled it around herself, glaring at her mother as she hurried out of the room. 

Felicity moved as fast as she could, spotting Oliver’s jeans and shirt and shoes and grabbing them up before hurrying back to her room. 

“…I thought I’d surprise Felicity with a little visit but if I’d known she had a boyfriend over, I would have absolutely called first,” Donna was saying as Felicity returned. She tossed the clothes to Oliver who caught them. She turned to her mother and took her arm, pulling her from the room. 

“It’s nice meeting you!” Donna called to Oliver, waving as Felicity tugged her into the living room. 

“What are you doing here??” Her mother had come to visit shortly after Felicity had moved to Starling and they’d spent a lovely weekend together. Her mother was a different sort, very much a free spirit. Very young at heart, she would argue. Felicity had spent most of her teenage years embarrassed of her mother. She worked as a cocktail waitress in Vegas, where Felicity had grown up, and her wardrobe often reflected that. Flashy colors, short and tight dresses… Often her mother was mistaken for an older sister, something Donna prided herself in. 

“I wanted to visit! I thought it’d be a sweet surprise,” Donna replied with a pout. 

Felicity closed her eyes, the lord of all headaches pounding to life behind her eyes. “I really wish you’d called first, mother.” 

“Who is he?” Her mother looked rather excited as she darted glances towards her bedroom. “He’s ridiculously hot, Felicity. I mean, _bravo_.” 

“His name is Oliver. We’re friends.” 

“Friends?” One of Donna’s brows went up. “Looks like a boyfriend to me.” 

Felicity choked on her reply as Oliver emerged from her room, dressed and looking sexily rumpled. For a split second, Felicity mourned the rest of their sex marathon. 

“I guess I should go,” he said, smiling at her mother. “Hi, I’m Oliver.”

Donna shook his outstretched hand, a big, flirty smile in place. “Nice to meet you, Oliver. I’m Donna Smoak. And please, don’t leave on my account. I can go, do some shopping, see a movie—” 

Felicity saw Oliver hesitate a little and she had to interject. “No, I’d say the mood is well and fully thrashed. You may as well stay. Oliver can go.” 

Donna pouted again and Felicity fought the urge to roll her eyes. 

“Okay, Felicity, if that’s what you want,” Oliver said. “We can, uh… reschedule.” 

“Sure, I’ll give you a call.” She was starting to feel a little hysterical, the situation having spun so quickly out of her control. Felicity pushed on Oliver’s chest, needing there to be more space between him and her mother. 

He bent his head, presumably to kiss her cheek like was usual with them but the moment they shared in her bed of the almost kiss was so fresh in her mind that Felicity immediately panicked and ducked away to open her front door for him. 

Felicity tried not to notice the slightly hurt expression on his face as he turned towards the door. She promised herself that she’d talk to him later and smooth things out. But she just really needed him out of her apartment now before her mother made things worse. 

“I’m sorry, Donna. Maybe we’ll have to get together for dinner before you return to Vegas.”

“Oh! I’d love that!” her mother chirped from behind her. 

Felicity would rather eat glass and would have been perfectly happy if these two had never crossed paths but she kept that thought to herself as she kept urging Oliver towards the door. He was just about out when he stopped and turned his head back towards her. 

“Oh! I forgot about the dishes from earlier. And I think I left the eggs out. I would clean that up but… apparently you need me to leave right now. I’m sorry, I’ll make it up to you later,” he said. 

Felicity could feel her mother’s stare in between her shoulder blades. “Don’t worry about it,” she told him. “I can clean up better than I can cook.” 

“He cooks??? That man looks like a Greek god and he _cooks_ too?” Donna was no better cook than she was so naturally she knew what a gem it was to find a man who could do it and would do it. 

Oliver just chuckled. “That’s a relief.” Then, with a wink, he was gone. Felicity closed the door and leaned against it, sighing. Then, she noticed her mother standing directly in front of her, hands on hips, her lips pursed and eyebrows up. 

“What?” Felicity asked, peevish. 

“That was pretty rude.” 

Felicity pushed away from the door, hiked up the throw blanket still wrapped around her body, and stalked past her mother and into her bedroom to get changed. 

Her mother followed close behind, carrying the clothes of hers that she’d worn that morning that had been flung all over the living room. Oops. 

“Are you not going to tell me what’s going on? I thought you told me Oliver was your friend.” 

Felicity yanked on underwear, some leggings and a sweatshirt before answering. If she was going to have this conversation, she was going to be clothed for it. 

“He is my friend.” 

“That you’re having sex with.” 

Felicity sat on the edge of her bed and sighed. “I mean, there’s no use pretending to you otherwise, is there?”

“No, I know exactly what I interrupted here.” 

She snorted. “Then, yes. He’s a friend I have sex with.” 

“And that’s it? Nothing more? No relationship?” 

“Nothing beyond being just friends.”

Her mother sat next to her. “So you’re not exclusive?”

Felicity rolled her shoulders, feeling uncomfortable at the thought of Oliver with someone else. “He’s not seeing anyone right now, no. Neither am I.” 

“So it’s exclusive.” 

“I guess, if you want to call it that.” 

“Honey, you’re dating him. He’s your boyfriend.” 

“Mom,” she warned. “Don’t do this.”

“Do what? I’m just calling it like I see it. Sweetie, he cooked for you. That means he takes care of you and it’s just really nice to see that. Even Ray didn’t do that sort of thing very often.” 

“Stop,” she protested, a little weakly. “Mom, I don’t want you to get attached to the idea of him and I being a couple. He’s not serious about me.”

“Says who?” 

“Says both of us, when we made this arrangement to begin with. He didn’t want a relationship but he missed sex. I… felt the same way.”

“You don’t anymore, do you?” her mother asked softly, putting her hand on top of hers. “Oh, honey. Are you falling for him?” 

Felicity’s chest ached as she thought the moment her mother had interrupted. Oliver had been about to kiss her, and she was going to let him. He’d said no kissing because it was too intimate. He’d been ready to break that rule. Why? What did it mean? 

Frustrated with herself and the situation, Felicity pushed off the bed with a growl. Thinking like this wasn’t going to do her any favors. “I’m not gonna fall down that rabbit hole,” she swore. “We made a deal, me and him. No relationship. No strings attached. Just friends.” 

“If that’s the case, and if you think you might be falling for him, maybe you need to renegotiate the arrangement,” her mom suggested. 

Felicity gnawed on her lower lip as she paced back and forth. Every time she tried to imagine telling Oliver that she might have feelings for him, her palms got damp and her heart sped up. He would laugh at her. Or he’d feel betrayed. She wasn’t sure which was worse. 

But maybe her mom was onto something here. Maybe she was ready to date someone again, and be a little more serious about it. It’d been a year since Ray. The sting of that failure had passed and her life was completely different now than it was then. Her job, her friends, her home… everything had changed. Back then, she hadn’t been able to commit herself to a serious relationship. But now? Maybe now she could. 

But if Oliver still wanted to keep things casual, there was no way she could push her feelings on him. No way. She wouldn’t do that to him. His friendship meant too much to her. If she couldn’t have him as a boyfriend, she absolutely needed him to remain her friend. 

***

The beautiful snow from the previous week was a slushy mess as Oliver hurried down the sidewalk, dodging cold rain drops, to the cafe where Felicity had asked that they meet. They often met there for coffee in the morning on their way in to work. 

He was cold and wet by the time he made it to the cafe. Luckily, it was warm and inviting inside and he quickly spotted Felicity at their favorite table. She already had their drinks ready there, waiting. Oliver grinned as he shrugged out of his coat on his way over to the table. She really was the best. He was lucky to have her. 

Did he have her though? They were the best of friends, there was no denying that. Their little arrangement was great too, lord knows he’d never had better sex with anyone else before in his life. But it was tenuous. When they’d started this thing together, it’d been to avoid a relationship. But now? Oliver was questioning it. 

They’d nearly kissed the day before, at her place, just before her mother interrupted them. The most surprising thing was, he’d wanted to and had been disappointed at the interruption. He was the reason they had agreed not to kiss in the first place. But… 

Lately, things had changed. At least they had on his end. He had to admit he wasn’t at all sure about what page Felicity was on. Given the way she’d reacted after her mom showed up, he wasn’t sure about anything at all with her. He’d been so glad when she’d called him and asked to meet for coffee. That had to be a good sign, right? 

“I just barely beat you here,” she said, pushing his drink towards the other side of the table. Oliver hung his coat off the back of the chair and sat. 

“Thanks for the drink,” he said, taking a bracing sip. 

Felicity was watching him with an odd expression on her face. He hadn’t seen her look like that before and it made him feel a little nervous. 

“What’s going on, Felicity? How’s your mother’s visit.” 

That seemed to relax her a little. “She’s a lot, my mother. I mean, you saw her. She requires a lot of energy and my poor little introverted soul can’t handle it.” 

He chuckled. “She seemed very nice, what little I got to see of her yesterday.” Okay, so maybe that was a bit pointed. It still smarted, how Felicity had practically pushed him from the apartment. They could have all had dinner together and he could have gotten to know her mother. Oliver surprised himself with the knowledge that getting to know Felicity’s family was something he really wanted to do. 

Felicity winced a little. “I’m sorry. I know I was pretty rude, the way I just hustled you out of there. It’s just that I was so humiliated and my mom, well, she brings out the worst in me.” 

“I think that’s just what family does,” he offered. “For what it’s worth, she seemed nice.” 

She made a face. “She’s a lot. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love her. But she just… she _latches on_. And she gets so attached, so fast. She sinks her claws in—“ Felicity mimed claws, making the most adorable little _grr_ face— “and never lets go. She did it all the time with guys when I was growing up and none of them ever could stick around, no matter how much she clung to them, and it just got so sad after a while. So, I knew she’d latch onto you in a second. She’s been dying for me to get a boyfriend since I moved to Starling and then she shows up and sees _you_. You heard her make that ‘Greek god’ comment, right? I couldn’t have her going and getting more attached to you when you and I, well, we aren’t in a real relationship.” 

Oliver felt his stomach drop. “Oh.” That wasn’t where he thought she was taking this at all. All hope that maybe she was rethinking this arrangement of theirs went flying out the window, just like that. 

Felicity stumbled a little, seeing his reaction. “Unless your feelings on relationships have changed? And you didn’t tell me?” She chuckled a little, sounding nervous. 

_Shit_. He had to cover himself here. He laughed too, a little. Even though it felt forced and unnatural. “Of course not! We did have an arrangement, after all. I’m a man of my word.” He was trying to make light of it but even to his own ears it sounded fake and overdone. He cleared his throat. “Why, have _your_ feelings changed?”

Felicity just stared at him for a long minute and he couldn’t figure out what she was thinking. Usually, he could read her like a book but he could not tell what he was seeing in her eyes. Was that relief? Or disappointment? Finally, at long last, she nodded. “I guess not.” Then she seemed to catch up with herself, her eyes slamming shut. “No. I mean, no. I’m on the same page as you, there. Agree and all that.” 

Oliver felt a rising urge to argue with her. To insist that no, this arrangement wasn’t all he wanted and things were different between them now. He wanted to tell her that he wanted something more with her, he wanted to give it a real try. He wanted _her_ , not just the sex. 

But instead, he took a sip of his coffee and swallowed down that urge. 

They didn’t linger long, after that. Coffee was drank, small talk was exchanged. The sky outside the cafe darkened. 

“I need to get back to my mom,” Felicity said, checking the time on her phone. “We’re supposed to order in some Indian together.” 

“Oh… okay.” Oliver felt a little awkward, something he hadn’t felt around Felicity since before they decided on this arrangement together. “Uhm, maybe call me? After your mom goes back home?” 

Felicity hesitated, her teeth biting into her lower lip. She looked at him, her eyes a little sad. “Actually, I’m thinking maybe… it’s time to stop the arrangement? 

_What?? Wait, was that a question or a statement?_ “Uh, what are you saying?” he asked. 

She shrugged casually. “You know, I was just thinking that maybe I’m ready to start dating again. Which kind of goes against making us exclusive.”

Oliver’s mouth went dry. She wanted to date? It was on the tip of his tongue to blurt out that she should date _him_ but he bit it back. The truth of the matter was if she wanted to date him, she already had him. She would say something. Felicity wasn’t a shy woman, he’d gotten to know that fact up close and personally in the bedroom. If she wanted to end their arrangement so she could date someone it had to be because she wanted to find someone else she could feel romantic about. 

That someone else just wasn’t him. 

Disappointment settled in his gut painfully. He took another drink of his coffee but it tasted bitter to him now. He desperately wanted to escape this cafe, this whole situation. Belatedly, he realized Felicity was watching him, likely waiting for a response from him. 

“Oh, I, uh, hadn’t realized you had changed your mind on a relationship.” He was stalling, he knew it. His brain was still trying to catch up with the knowledge that Felicity not only wanted a relationship, but didn’t want one with him. “But, uh… good for you. I’m glad, Felicity. You—you shouldn’t be alone.” 

She smiled at him softly, reaching across the table to pat his hand. “Thank you, Oliver. But honestly, I’m just glad we’re still able to be friends. We are, right? Friends still?” 

There was a lump in his throat. “Sure, Felicity,” he said, making himself smile at her. He squeezed her hand. “We’ll always be friends.” 

***

It’d been a week since she’d “ended” things between her and Oliver. Sure, they were still friends but Felicity had to admit that things weren’t the same. She saw him once at work, getting on the elevator that she was getting off of and they promised to get together for pizza or something soon. But they hadn’t. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought he was avoiding her. 

Shoot, maybe he was. 

Felicity got it. She missed the sex too. But she did want to try dating and if she couldn’t date Oliver, then she had to find someone else. And it didn’t seem right to keep sleeping with him, no matter how casually, if she was dating someone else or looking to date someone else. It felt wrong to her. Felicity had to admit to herself that the sex between them wasn’t casual to her. Not anymore. And if he wasn’t interested in her romantically, it wasn’t right to keep sleeping with him. 

She’d been devastated that day at the coffee shop, when she realized that Oliver still only wanted the no-strings arrangement between them. Part of her had hoped that maybe he’d been developing feelings for her too. When she’d returned to her apartment and (reluctantly) told her mother, she’d been surprised. 

And then the two of them had eaten ice cream and watched sad movies the rest of the night. It had cheered her up a little bit. 

But Felicity missed Oliver. She missed more than just the sex. She missed spending her lunches with him and laughing with him. It’d only been a week but it’d been the loneliest week she’d had since she’d arrived in Starling. 

So now she was at the grocery store, needing to stock up on more ice cream and wine because she was rapidly becoming a cliche. She already had the cat, after all. Which reminded her, she needed some cat food for Amelia. 

Felicity turned down the pet food aisle and studied the different options, trying to remember which brand that one bag of dry food that Amelia had detested had been. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glance of someone near the end of the aisle. She turned to see an attractive man there, perusing the dog food. He wasn’t looking at her but she had the feeling he had been a moment ago. 

Shrugging it off, she continued through the store, ticking items off her rather paltry list. She was buying more frozen dinners than she had been, considering she didn’t really have Oliver fixing her meals anymore. Felicity hadn’t realized how many times he’d cooked for her until she suddenly was forced to fend for herself. 

Mark that down as another thing she missed. 

When she finished, she got into line at the checkout. The attractive man she’d noticed before was in front of her. She couldn’t help but peek into his basket, noticing some dog food, a six pack of beer, some cereal as well as meat and vegetables. Far less pathetic than her haul of frozen food, ice cream and wine. 

She was half paying attention as he checked out. When it came time for him to pay, she watched him check his pockets and then curse softly. 

“Shit, I forgot my wallet,” he said, pulling a couple of bills out of his pocket. “I have fifteen here.” 

“The total is $20.31. Would you like me to remove some things for you?” the cashier asked kindly. 

Before he could reply, Felicity found herself speaking up. “I can lend you the five bucks,” she said. 

The man turned to her, surprised. He was even more attractive this close up. He had dark eyes underneath expressive brows. His brown hair was carefully coiffed and his clothes were nice. He didn’t look like some sort of deadbeat or anything. Plus, it was the nice, neighborly thing to do. 

He smiled, a charming expression on an already attractive face. “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” he said. “I feel like a doofus, forgetting my wallet like that.”

“It’s my pleasure,” she protested. She passed over a $5 bill and a little change to the cashier who accepted it with a smile. 

The man smiled at her, a beaming grin that had her blushing a little. “Thank you so much. I’ll pay you back.” 

“Oh, it’s not necessary,” she said. 

The man accepted his groceries and stood off to the side so she could move ahead to pay for her own haul. “I insist. My mother raised me to have proper manners. Please.” 

“Okay, but only if you insist.” 

The cashier smirked a little as she rang up Felicity’s groceries, giving her a knowing smile as she passed over the receipt after Felicity paid. The man waited for her and walked out with her. 

“Can I get your number?” he asked. “So I can pay you back. And also, maybe ask you out to dinner?” 

She felt a tingle at the man’s gentle flirting. He was interested in her! “Uhm, sure.” 

They stopped just outside the store and Felicity pushed the cart with her groceries out of the way of customers coming and going as she rifled through her purse for a pen and some paper. She found the receipt from her coffee with Oliver last week and hesitated before turning it over and writing her name and phone number on the back. She handed it to the man who smiled as he read what she’d written. 

“Felicity, that’s such a lovely name.” He pocketed the slip of paper and then held his hand out for her to shake. “My name is Adrian. Adrian Chase.” 

She shook his hand, enjoying his firm grip. “Nice to meet you. Please, don’t feel you have to worry about the five dollars. Maybe just… if you do ask me to dinner, buy me dessert?” 

His smile deepened as his eyes twinkled. “I’ll buy you the whole dinner, Felicity Smoak.” 

Felicity grinned to herself the whole drive home from the store. Just like that, she had a date. There was a twinge of regret that it wasn’t Oliver she was going out with but Adrian seemed like a nice guy. It was a start. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *runs away*


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity is dating Adrian Chase. Oliver has some feelings about that and wonders if, instead of moping around, he needs to get back out in the dating scene too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reactions to the last chapter gave me LIIIIIFEEEEE. You guys are the greatest, I truly mean that. I'm so glad you enjoyed the angst of that other shoe dropping. That so many of you wanted to strangle them but also were kinda (not-so) secretly loving it. And I really hope you all enjoy this chapter too. I know it starts off in a rough place but I'm just asking you to stick with me. Hopefully by the end of the chapter, you'll be feeling a bit better about things between our dense twosome?

_Three months later_

Oliver was miserable. Flat out depressed. He knew he needed something to get his mind off of Felicity, how he’d let her slip through his fingers, how she was now dating that tool Adrian Chase. Which was why he’d let Tommy drag him out tonight to the club. But his heart wasn’t in it. Not at all.

“C’mon, buddy,” Tommy encouraged. “You need to get your mind off of her and in my experience, the best way to forget a woman is to sleep with another.”

“I don’t know, Tommy,” he replied, dejected. He swirled the liquid in his glass, whiskey as per usual, before taking a healthy swallow and letting the amber liquid burn down to his stomach. “I’m not really interested in someone else.”

“That’s the problem,” his friend said. “You need to get interested. This is the easiest way.”

Oliver sighed. Tommy meant well, he knew that. He was the only one who knew that Oliver had feelings for Felicity. The rest of their friend group believed exactly what Felicity herself believed; that she’d been ready to date someone else more seriously and they’d amicably ended their arrangement. His oldest friend, however, hadn’t bought the story once he saw how Oliver was moping around, especially when they all hung out together with Felicity (and now, regrettably, Adrian too), and had gotten the truth out of him.

“Why didn’t you just tell her how you feel about her?” Tommy had asked, incredulous.

“Because I’m not who she wants,” Oliver explained. “If I was, she would have said something.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Trust me, Tommy. It’s better this way. I get to keep her as a friend. And she’s happy with Adrian. You’ve seen her. I’m not going to get in the way of that.”

Since Oliver’s mood had only gotten steadily worse over the past three months, Tommy had finally insisted that they go out and try to get him laid. It was the last thing Oliver wanted to do but he frankly had no idea what else to try. He couldn’t get Felicity out of his mind.

He hated not being with her. Sure, they hung out still but usually as part of their group of friends. One on one didn’t really happen anymore, partly because she’d started dating Adrian Chase and the two of them were nearly always together on evenings and weekends. And Oliver wasn’t masochistic enough to want to be the third wheel in that situation.

Adrian seemed like a nice enough guy and almost everyone else in their group liked him. Tommy was a little uncertain and took an almost protective stance with the guy. Which was the stance that Oliver himself should have taken and would have if he wasn’t so twisted up over Felicity dating.

There was something about the guy that just felt… off. He was too perfect. Too nice. Too accommodating. Something felt inauthentic about it. Almost like he was patronizing all of them, particularly Felicity. She didn’t see it, though. She seemed as happy as ever which only made Oliver feel worse.

He missed her. He missed the times they would spoon after a particularly vigorous round of sex. Oliver was never the sort to cuddle before Felicity but something about her just made him want to wrap himself around her. Even more than that, he missed being near her like that.

Oliver missed cooking for her, the way her eyes would light up with delight when he’d try a new dish on her. She always made a point to talk up what he’d done, even if it was a simple recipe. She made him feel like a whiz in the kitchen, which could not be overstated. Helena had never wanted to eat his cooking, always preferring to eat out or get take-out. Now, he had no one to cook for besides himself and it wasn’t the same.

He wondered if Adrian cooked for her.

He missed having lunch with her. Even at work, they never really did that anymore, mostly because she was always meeting Adrian for lunch. He worked in the DA’s office which wasn’t far from QC. Oliver also missed seeing her during the day, dropping by her office or her dropping by his. Nothing was stopping him from going to see her but it didn’t feel quite right anymore. The way they’d just stop and visit, joking with each other, that wasn’t the same. Felicity used to brighten his day. Now she was brightening Adrian’s day instead.

Did that lucky bastard know how good he had it with her?

Oliver even missed Felicity’s rambles and their teasing banter. They used to have long phone conversations on the nights they didn’t meet up for sex. They’d talk about anything and everything for hours. He missed how she would call him out on his bullshit in a way no one else ever had. But she still made it clear that she cared about him. He knew she still cared about him, but… it just wasn’t the same.

They just didn’t see each other as much anymore and whenever they did, she had Adrian with her. That made Oliver cranky so he wasn’t quite up to teasing with her like he used to. He would see the hurt and disappointment in her eyes when she’d try to engage with him and he’d be reticent. He didn’t want to hurt her. He just didn’t trust himself.

“Okay, buddy, how about her?” Tommy said, pointing across the club towards a group of people dancing.

“Which one?” he asked, trying to inject enthusiasm in his voice. It didn’t work, earning him a look from Tommy.

“Try to act a little interested, okay? It’s the redhead. In the pink dress.”

Oliver saw her. She was lithe and attractive, even from this distance. He could tell she was taller than Felicity and then cursed himself for already comparing her. No, Tommy was right and he needed to do this to get Felicity out of his head. And his heart. This had to work. What else was there to try at this point?

“Do you know her?” Oliver asked. Tommy had ownership interest in a club here in Starling, Verdant. He’d long since passed on day to day operations to a suitable manager but he did still put in some time “glad-handing” the VIPs.

Tommy shook his head. “But that’s not saying much. She looks cute and also down for a good time. Why don’t you go do your thing, hotshot?”

Oliver shot his friend a dirty look as he left the hightop table they’d been stationed at and moved towards the dance floor. Just his luck, the redhead was taking a break and headed towards the bar.

If he could get out of this without having to actually dance, he’d consider the night a win.

She’d just pressed up to the bar and lifted her arm to get the bartender’s attention when he reached her side. “Hi,” he said, for lack of any better line. God, he was rusty.

She turned quickly towards him, startled. But her surprise quickly morphed into delight when she saw him. “Oh, hello there, lover,” she said.

Okay, that was a strange way to greet someone you’d just met. “Can I buy you a drink?” he asked.

One of her sculpted brows lifted. “Why, sure. I’ll take a cosmopolitan.”

Oliver signaled the bartender who instantly came over to them. It helped to be recognized in this city.A glance at the redhead showed that she was impressed by the prompt service that he commanded. Once upon a time, Oliver would have been pleased by that. Now, all he could think of was how Felicity would roll her eyes at the whole thing.

“One Cosmo, and a whiskey, neat,” he ordered. “Put it on my tab.”

“Yes sir, Mr. Queen,” the bartender replied, hurrying to fix their drinks.

“Mr Queen?” the redhead all but purred. “Oliver Queen, by any chance?”

“That’s me,” he said, trying to smile easily and flirtatiously. “And you are?”

“Carrie. Carrie Cutter. I’ve heard stories about you, you know.”

“Oh yeah? Anything good?” he asked. This felt beyond awkward but Carrie seemed to be eating it all up. Her grin was positively feline.

“Absolutely. Only good reports about the famous Oliver Queen.”

Their drinks were served then and Oliver ushered her over to the VIP section, to a booth set away from everyone else, offering relative privacy. He watched Carrie slide into the booth, her short, tight pink dress hiking up her thighs. It was a hell of a view, he had to admit. He slid in next to her, hoping that his libido would start getting the hint. Before Helena, he would have been all over Carrie by now. His game was definitely rusty.

“So tell me,” she said, her voice low and seductive. She ran her fingers up his arm, her nails lightly scratching him through his sleeve, “what made you come up to little ol’ me?”Her eyelashes batted, bringing attention to her wide, green eyes.

Carrie wore a lot of makeup, something that generally didn’t bother him but he couldn’t help but think about how Felicity used a much lighter hand, letting her natural beauty shine through. There was no doubt that Carrie was very attractive but with the skimpy dress and the heavy makeup, he could tell she was on the prowl tonight.

Hell, that should be what he wanted, right? He wasn’t looking for a relationship here!

“Pretty girl, dancing alone… I thought you might… want some company.”

Her eyes lit up. “With you? Absolutely. Just say the word.”

It was his turn to raise his eyebrows. That easily? So maybe he wasn’t that out of practice after all. Oliver glanced across to where Tommy still stood at the hightop, watching them surreptitiously. At Oliver’s glance, he lifted his drink in salute.

“Maybe we should enjoy our drinks first?” he asked, feeling the need to buy himself some time. “Get to know each other a little better.”

“Sure, lover. Whatever you want.” She then proceeded to tell him her whole life’s story, barely letting him get a word in edgewise. Which was fine by him. Oliver sipped his whiskey and made a show of listening, nodding in all the appropriate spots. Carrie finished talking at the same time she finished her drink.

“I think you know me now, right?” she asked him. Without waiting for an answer, she leaned up to kiss him but Oliver put his hands on her shoulders, stopping her.

Carrie pouted, her lower lip poking out. “You’re not changing your mind, are you?”

“I—I don’t kiss.”

“Anywhere? Or just the lips?”

“Just the lips.”

Her grin grew as she reached for his hand. “Okay then, lover, we’ve got a deal.”

Carrie tugged him through the club and Oliver sent Tommy a little wave as they left. Tommy lifted his drink in salute.

They took a cab to her apartment, which was located in the up and coming part of town on the east side of downtown. Ronnie lived there so Oliver had been there before. Still, he found himself very interested in the scenery outside the vehicle. Carrie kept pawing at him, kissing on his neck and Oliver was torn. He knew he needed to start responding, to get into this, but his brain was screaming at him that this was a Poor Idea.

“We’re here,” she announced, bringing him out of his fog. The cab had stopped in front of a trendy looking apartment building. Oliver followed Carrie out of the cab, pausing to pay the driver. She took his hand and led him up to her door.

It was time to make a concerted effort here. So, Oliver bent his head to kiss along her neck as she unlocked her door. He followed her inside, paying little mind to the surroundings and she flipped on the lights.

She spun around, her hands in his hair as she moved against him. Oliver put his hands on her hips, really trying to feel the moment, to generate any amount of interest in her. His cock remained unimpressed, however. After a moment, Carrie noticed.

She cupped him with her hand, rubbing. Oliver tried to will himself and it wasn’t working… not until he closed his eyes and imagined Felicity. He conjured an image of Felicity in his mind, her hand rubbing against his cock, her lips on his neck, her core rubbing against his leg. Finally, his body began to respond.

Carrie purred with satisfaction, which pulled him right out of the fantasy. Oliver sighed, putting his hands on her shoulders to push her back a little. She stopped, making a frustrated noise.

“What? What is the problem?”

“I—I’m sorry. I just don’t think I’m much in the mood tonight.”

She leveled him with a skeptical look. “Is it whiskey dick? Did you drink too much? I’ve heard that can be a problem with some guys, admittedly none when they were with me, but you are getting older…”

He stepped back from her, feeling more than a little insulted. “Listen. I’m sorry, but I think I’m going to have to call for a raincheck here.”

Carrie was definitely annoyed. Verging on pissed. Her eyes darkened as she scowled at him. “I got all dressed up and went to the club hoping to find someone and now I’ve just wasted all that time and effort!”

Something about that felt wrong to him. It was a casual mindset that he hadn’t really held himself in years. “I said I was sorry. It’s just not happening tonight.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Just go.”

Hoping that she wouldn’t start spreading rumors about his flagging libido, Oliver let himself out of her apartment. He considered calling up another cab but he wasn’t that far from his own apartment building downtown and he could use the fresh air. So he walked.

He just wasn’t ready yet. That’s what it was. Needing to think about Felicity to even try to get hard was just… an anomaly. Hopefully.

“I’m fucked,” he muttered as he trudged towards home.

***

Felicity hesitated to call the early April weather “warm”, but it certainly wasn’t the rainy/snowy/windy mess that January had been. Still, she pulled her wool overcoat around her as she hurried down the sidewalk from the QC building towards the city courthouse, where Adrian worked.

They weren’t supposed to meet for lunch today but she thought she’d surprise him. They’d been dating a little over three months now and Felicity felt they’d found a comfortable groove. Maybe too comfortable, actually.

She knew she shouldn’t compare her relationship with Adrian to what she and Oliver had been doing. Mostly because she and Oliver hadn’t really been in an actual relationship. It was like comparing apples and oranges. But the sex, well… it was hard not to compare that.

Maybe it was just that Oliver was an actual sex god and no other man, regardless of relationship status with her at the time, could possibly measure up. That man had done things to her that no man before or since had been able to manage. Including give her multiple orgasms. She’d always thought multiple orgasms was a myth perpetuated by romance novels but nope. Oliver actually took pride in making her come until she was begging him for mercy.

It’s not like Adrian couldn’t make her come. He could. He had. He did, on numerous occasions! So what if it wasn’t every single time they made love?! So what if he couldn’t do that multiple orgasm thing? Felicity had a feeling that was a specialized skill anyhow and it was entirely possible that Oliver was some sort of randy prodigy.

Adrian, she discovered, tended to like the missionary position and only the missionary position. She’d talked him into letting her be on top a couple of times but he always ended up flipping her back over so she’d given up. Forget anything more daring than that. She could hardly count that against him though, right?

He was a sweet man. He treated her well. He took her on dates, held her hand, told her how beautiful she was all the time. So what if he didn’t always answer her calls or texts? She and Oliver just had a very contact based relationship and she was used to texting and calling him all the time. It wasn’t fair to put that expectation on Adrian too.

Felicity’s shoulders slumped as she had to admit that her contact with Oliver had slowed to a trickle since she’d begun dating Adrian. After the awkwardness that was that first week after she ended their arrangement, she’d begun seeing Adrian and since then, things with her and Oliver cooled off. Which was to be expected. Adrian didn’t know about her “fuck buddy” situation with Oliver and there was no way she was going to tell him, but it still felt a little wrong to always be talking to the guy who used to fuck her on the regular, right?

It’s not like she never saw Oliver anymore. Their friend group hung out quite often. She usually brought Adrian with her when they’d all meet for pizza and beers or for game night at someone’s home or anything like that. It was normal for a couple to do things together. Everyone seemed to like Adrian too, except maybe Oliver. Felicity wasn’t sure what his problem with her boyfriend was but things had been frosty between them from the get go.

Felicity had tried to talk to Oliver a few times about it but he’d brushed her off which she had to admit hurt. It felt like they’d lost something between them. It made her question whether it was just about the sex between them. Maybe they weren’t as good of friends as she had thought.

Shaking off those maudlin thoughts, Felicity let herself into the courthouse building. She explained to the guards she was there to see Adrian. They knew her by now and waved her through. She smiled and continued to the elevators where she rode up to the third floor, where the Assistant District Attorney’s offices were.

Adrian’s office was on the corner, a really cushy situation and as Felicity neared the door, which stood ajar, she heard voices. She was about to knock but something stopped her. It was the mention of her name.

“…what about your girlfriend. What’s her name again?”

“Felicity. She’s a nice girl but, to be perfectly honest, she’s just a means to an unsatisfactory end. I wouldn’t consider her a roadblock to seeing someone else, let’s put it that way,” Adrian replied.

Felicity’s heart dropped into her knees.

“The sex isn’t great then?” the first person, another man asked, sounding amused. She felt like she was going to be sick.

“Nah. I mean, it’s okay. You know the saying; sex is like pizza. Even when it’s bad, it’s still good.”

The man laughed. “That’s true.”

“I don’t know. I just don’t feel like we vibe. She’s not really responsive, you know?”Adrian said with a chuckle.

“Ah, a cold fish, eh? She does have that look.”

Oh god. She had to get out of here. Now.

“Eh.” It was a dismissive, indecisive noise from Adrian. “She has her moments. But yeah. I’d be up for hooking up this weekend. I’m supposed to do this play thing with Felicity but I’ll just tell her that I have a work thing. Which club is it?”

The man rattled off the name of a club Felicity wasn’t familiar with… Club Milk. Quickly and quietly, Felicity backed away from Adrian’s office door and hurried for the elevators. Tears stung behind her eyes as she stabbed the down button.

On the ride down to the lobby, she yanked her phone from her purse and pulled up her contacts. Her finger hovered over one of the names there. The elevator doors opened and she rushed out and past the guards and onto the street outside. There, she took a deep breath and blew it out again.

Walking back towards QC, she looked down at her phone again, at the number, and she hit it. Her heart was in her throat and a tear splashed down her cheek before the recipient answered.

“Felicity?” His voice was a balm. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Oliver,” she choked out. “I—I…” What the hell did she say? Felicity couldn’t explain why Oliver was the first person who came to mind for her to call but he was.

“Hey, hey, hey….” His voice was soft. “Are you okay? Where are you.”

“Snohomish Street. Headed back to the office right now.” Her voice was shaky.

“Okay,” He sounded like he was moving. “I’m in the elevator, I’m going to meet you.”

She wanted to burst into tears. Because of the things she’d heard Adrian say. Because of the kindness from Oliver right now. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“Hey, don’t mention it,” he said. “That’s what friends are for, right?”

That did it. Felicity burst into heaving sobs, barely able to hold onto the phone. She kept walking, hoping no one noticed the crazy woman ugly crying on the sidewalk in the middle of the day.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Oliver asked and his voice sounded tight.

“It was…” She paused and gulped, trying to regain her composure, at least a little bit. “Adrian…”

“Fuck,” Oliver swore quietly. “Hold on, I see you.”

She looked up and could barely see through her tear-speckled glasses. However, she could make out an Oliver-shaped figure rushing towards her. She continued towards him, not stopping until she felt his arms go around her.

His chest was warm, comfortable and familiar. She inhaled, savoring his woodsy scent and letting it soothe her.

“I’m here,” he said, needlessly. “What happened?”

“It’s… I went to surprise Adrian for lunch and he…” The words got caught in her throat and she felt Oliver’s arm’s tighten.

He swore under his breath. “C’mon. I’ll take you to lunch, we can talk.”

Felicity let herself be led down the sidewalk. He kept his arm around her, guiding her. Oliver steered her into a restaurant, she didn’t even notice which one. She didn’t really care. Moments later, they were seated in a booth near the back of the restaurant. Oliver slid in next to her.

“Okay, think you can tell me what happened?” he asked her gently.

“I’m sorry, Oliver,” she said, her voice a little shaky. “I don’t know why I called you, you were just the first person I thought of and I know you were working—“

He held up a hand. “I’m going to stop you right there. I’m glad you called me. I’m glad I can help. Nothing is more important than this right now.”

Felicity took a deep breath. “Thanks. It means a lot.” She paused as the waitress came to get their orders. She ordered a salad and some soup, even though she had to admit her appetite was pretty trashed at this point. Once they were alone, she told Oliver what she’d overheard.

His expression was stormy as he listened but he waited until she was finished to speak. “Wait, so he’s planning to cheat on you and he… said those things about you to someone behind your back? Tell me I heard that right.”

Her cheeks were flaming with the humiliation of it all. “Yes.”

“That fucking asshole,” he growled. “I want to go over there and kick his ass.”

“But you’re not, right?” she asked, laughing a little nervously.

“Jury’s out on that. I can’t believe he would say those things about you. That anyone would say that, much less someone who is supposed to care about you.”

Which was pretty much what Felicity was thinking too. “I don’t know what to do,” she bemoaned.

“I do,” Oliver declared. “You’re going to break up with him. Please say you are.”

Felicity sighed. “Yeah, I mean, I can’t unhear what I heard.”

“I’m sorry, Felicity,” he said gently, “you don’t deserve that. You deserve someone that will cherish you.”

Tears threatened again. A little voice said that Oliver would have cherished her, if he’d had any romantic feelings for her. She knew he would. But he did cherish her, as a friend. And that was something.

“I missed you,” she blurted.

Oliver looked surprised. “I missed you, too.I’m glad you called me.”

“Thanks for coming,” she said.

“Again, it’s my pleasure.”

Their food was delivered and as they ate, Oliver helped her plan what she would say to Adrian when she broke up with him. It pained her; she thought what they had was good. Maybe not great, but at least it was good. It sucked to have another relationship fail. But after talking to Oliver she felt better about it and about her future prospects. Before they left the restaurant, he squeezed her arm again.

“Someone out there is perfect for you, Felicity. I know it.”

She smiled, a little weakly. If only that someone was Oliver.

***

Later that night, Oliver was going over some paperwork at home when his cellphone rang. It was Felicity. He answered it before it had a chance to ring a second time.

“So how did it go?” he asked immediately.

“It went,” she replied, a little morosely. “But it’s done. He didn’t even try to deny it, Oliver.”

He grit his teeth. “At least he’s not completely stupid. He knew he was caught.”

“Yeah, I suppose. But… he didn’t try to take it back either. He didn’t try to say it was just guy talk or anything. Which means he actually believes those things he said.”

Oliver fought the urge to punch something. Or someone. Adrian’s face swam in his mind, smirking. Fuckhead. He’d known the guy was a tool.

“I didn’t say it was completely smart either,” he offered. “Felicity, he’s an ass. I’m sorry, but that’s the facts.”

“You know what’s funny?” she said and he could hear the tears in her voice. He wished he was over at her place right that second so he could hug her. “I’ve been thinking that he was the one that wasn’t very good at sex.”

Oliver hated himself and he knew he wasn’t going to want to hear her answer, to hear about her having sex with someone else, but he _had_ to ask. “Oh really? How so?”

“I don’t know… he only likes missionary position. I tried to suggest some… other positions but he was never into it. And… he just wasn’t as good at orgasms as… well. Yeah, he just wasn’t that good.”

Oliver held his breath. Had she been about to say that Adrian wasn’t as good at pleasing her as he was? “I—I’m sorry, Felicity.”

“Oh, relax, Oliver. You’re still the best. By a wide margin,” she grumbled.

He couldn’t help the grin that bloomed across his face. “I shouldn’t be happy to hear that, but I am.”

Felicity snorted softly. “No, you shouldn’t. Ugh. I’m just really bummed that it didn’t work out. He seemed like such a nice guy. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. The best relationship I’ve had, like, ever was with you and it wasn’t even an actual relationship.”

A pang of sadness washed over him. “You’re not doing anything wrong, Felicity. I promise.”

“I don’t know. I just need to do something fun this weekend. Forget that dumbass.”

An idea occurred to him. “Hey, I was going to join my family at their cabin in the mountains this weekend. Why don’t you come along?” he asked.

“Are you serious? Because I’m tempted.”

“I’m one hundred percent serious, Felicity. It’ll get you out of town and we can have fun, do some late-season skiing, all that. It’ll help get your mind off that jerk.”

She hummed. “Plus, I’d finally get to meet your family. Is your sister going to be there too?”

“Uhh… maybe we can do something else this weekend. Maybe fly to Los Angeles? Some beach time?”

“Nope! Too late, sir. You can’t keep me from them forever. I’ve been dying to meet Thea.”

Oliver swallowed a curse. “She wants to meet you too.” That was an understatement. Thea had been pestering him about meeting Felicity for months now and before the holidays, he’d actually been lowkey planning something but then their arrangement ended and she started dating that fuckwad. Now? He felt a little nervous. Thea knew too much. Also, the stories these two could swap would almost certainly be humiliating for him.

“Don’t worry, Oliver. We won’t embarrass you too much,” Felicity teased. “C’mon, this will be brilliant for getting my mind off Adrian.”

As if he could ever deny her anything she wanted. “Okay, let’s do it. And don’t worry about my mom. The stories about her around QC are exaggerated.”

“Wait, what? What stories? Why would I worry?? OLIVER!”

He chuckled. Turnabout's fair play. “You’ll see,” he promised.

“Oh god, that sounded sinister. Okay, well, I’m a brave girl.I can handle your mother.”

“If you say so…”

They talked for at least another hour and by the time they hung up, Oliver could tell that Felicity’s mood was already lifting. He’d coaxed plenty of laughter out of her and it felt almost like it used to between them.

Perhaps their friendship could get back on track. It was all he could really ask for at this point, since more with Felicity was off the table. He went to bed that night with a smile on his face and hope in his heart. He hated that Felicity’s heart had to get broken but he was beyond grateful he’d been able to be there for her when she needed him. Just like any good friend would be.

Yep. That’s what he was. A good friend. A _best_ friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? Just like that it's past. Time jumps are wonderful things. 😉 Onwards and upwards!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver brings Felicity to his family's cabin for the weekend in an effort to cheer her up and distract her from her jerk of an ex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably don't even need to warn you all about this but... here be smuts. There's also some very relevant developments as well. This is a pretty big chapter for our little obtuse twosome. 
> 
> I hope all the Americans out there had a lovely holiday weekend. And I hope the rest of the world is doing well too. Keep wearing your masks, practice social distancing and all that fun stuff. 💜

There wasn’t going to be any skiing on this extended weekend. As Oliver drove them up the mountain in his pricey SUV, they were pelted with constant, pouring rain. Rain that was melting some snow and turning the rest to an icky slush. Felicity didn’t mind, she wasn’t much of a skier anyhow, but Oliver was bummed.

“Why? I’m sure we can find fun things to do. It’ll be fine!” she reassured him.

Oliver grumbled. “Yeah, I know. I was just looking forward to giving you some more skiing lessons.”

That made her laugh. “You didn’t feel me up enough the last time?” she asked. “Besides, I thought our arrangement was over?”

The smile dropped off his face. “Oh. Yeah.”

Felicity sighed and looked out the passenger side window at the rain and the highway winding up the mountains to the west of the city. She regretted saying anything. No, what she actually regretted was ending their arrangement in the first place. At the time, it had seemed the right and noble thing to do since she was catching feelings. But now? A weekend with him, trapped inside?

This was going to be torture.

But at least she and Oliver were solid. Felicity believed that now more than ever. The way he’d been there for her with this whole Adrian mess… that was invaluable to her. Hanging out with Oliver right now felt like a balm on her bruised soul. He gave her strength, which she needed desperately.

The breakup with Adrian had been pretty cut and dry but it was still painful. They’d met for drinks after work, and she’d confronted him with what she’d heard then. Felicity didn’t know what she’d been expecting. Maybe some excuses or some pleading but instead Adrian had just shrugged and offered a rather flippant, “I guess this is over then, huh?”

Oh, yeah. It was over. Luckily, she hadn’t given him a key to her place or had any of her things at his. She was able to collect her purse, get up, and walk out with her head held high.

What an asshole. The sex hadn’t even been worth it. She was so angry with herself.

“Hey, we’re nearly there,” Oliver said, shaking her from her reverie. Felicity looked through the front windshield as he pulled off the highway and onto a lesser side road. Signage declared the town they were now driving through as “Cedar Glen”. They passed a few buildings… a general store, a post office, a bar… as well as a few modest looking homes.

Still, Oliver kept driving. He pulled off onto an even smaller road, one lane by the look of it. “It’s so pretty up here,” she murmured, looking at all the majestic, towering pine trees. Even with the rain pouring down, it looked like something out of a movie or a nature documentary. Felicity hadn’t been around anything like this, growing up in Las Vegas.

“Yeah, it is,” Oliver agreed. “I used to love coming up here as a kid. We’d spend weeks. There’s a little lake behind the cabin and I would be in that thing from dawn until dusk. It’s where I learned to swim, actually.”

“Too bad it’s not warmer, we could have gone swimming.”

“Maybe we’ll come back in the summer.”

Was it just here or was the look he just gave her filled with heat and promise? Was she imagining things just because her mind had already skipped to skinny dipping? She’d only been single for five days, she couldn’t possibly be hard up already.

Then again, it could just be Oliver. That man did things to her just by being near.

The narrow drive went on for several minutes before the towering pines parted and the cabin came into view. Felicity choked on a laugh. “Cabin” was such a stretch, in this case. What she saw rising against the backdrop of the shimmering water beyond, framed by ancient pines, was a mansion. Built out of wood, yes, but still a mansion. It was enormous.

“Oliver… it’s huge!” she said.

He smirked. “That’s what she said.”

Felicity smacked his arm.

He pulled up in front of the wide steps that led up to the front door. Her nerves ratcheted up. She was about to meet his family for the first time and that had been a tolerable notion when they were miles away and when she was picturing a more quaint cabin setting. Faced with the opulence of this place and the reality of his family being just on the other side of that door had her wanting to race back down the mountain and go hide under the covers in her bed.

The rain had slowed to a light drizzle, thankfully, so Felicity got out of the SUV and stood before the steps, chewing her lip as she looked up. Were there three stories? Or were the ceilings just really tall? Holy cow. “This might be the biggest house I’ve ever seen,” she murmured.

“That’s because you haven’t seen the Queen Manor back in Starling yet. Which we’ll have to remedy after this.” Oliver joined her with their bags in tow.

She gulped. Frack.

“C’mon. Let’s get inside and out of this rain.”

Felicity insisted on grabbing her own bag since he had his own bag to deal with. They walked up the steps and Oliver let himself in the front door. He took her bag and set it off to the side just inside the door. Felicity, however, was busy staring around at the grand foyer.

The walls were all rough wood paneling but somehow it looked high end and chic. The chandelier was elegant but rustic at the same time. There was a homey vibe that she wasn’t expecting when they’d pulled up. It was warm and inviting and there was the pleasant scent of freshly baked cookies on the air.

“Ollie!” The shriek startled Felicity as a figure came running out of one of the rooms off the foyer and launched themselves at Oliver. It was a petite brunette girl that she had to assume was his younger sister, Thea. “You made it!”

“Don’t doubt me, Thea,” he said, hugging her tightly. “Or my trusty Land Rover.”

She released him and whirled on Felicity. “And you brought Felicity!” she exclaimed. Before Felicity could say a word, Thea was hugging her too.

“Nice to meet you, Thea,” she said, chuckling as she hugged the girl back.

When Thea released her, her eyes were dancing with mirth and excitement. She was a very pretty girl, dark where Oliver was light, but somehow the strong family resemblance shone through. Oliver had said she was ten years younger than him, which would make her about nineteen years old. She looked a bit older, definitely far more sophisticated than Felicity herself had been at that age.

Dual Masters degrees from MIT did not equal sophistication, after all.

“Oliver has told me all about you,” Thea said. “I think we’re going to be good friends.”

“I hope so,” Felicity replied. “I’m glad you were able to come for the long weekend.” Oliver had told her Thea was attending college down in California which was pretty much why she hadn’t met her before now.

“Hello, Oliver.” Felicity turned at the new voice and was faced with the sight of the primmest, most proper woman she’d ever seen before in her life. The infamous Moira Queen. Even though her wardrobe could technically be considered ‘casual’, somehow Felicity figured it cost as much as her monthly rent, if not more. The jeans were absolutely designer, and tailored. Her shirt went perfectly with her earrings which went perfectly with her shoes. Not a single frosted hair was out of place. At her elbow stood Walter, whom she recognized easily. As much as she wanted to greet her boss, the cool look in the woman’s eyes dried up any words in her throat.

“Mom,” Oliver greeted. It wasn’t exactly warm but it was cordial. He crossed the foyer to where she stood and bent to kiss her cheek. She smiled at him, patting his cheek in return before turning her gaze back to Felicity. The smile melted from her features as she sized her up. Suddenly, Felicity found herself wishing she’d worn something nicer than a pair of off-the-rack jeans and a discount sweater.

“And who is this?” she asked, her tone polite. “Your girlfriend?”

Felicity nearly choked and Oliver stiffened visibly. “Uh… no. Mom, this is Felicity. I mentioned her to you before. She’s one of my best friends.”

“I’ve mentioned her as well,” Walter interjected warmly, stepping forward to clasp Felicity’s hands in his own. “Hello, Felicity. It’s good to see you.”

“Hi, Walter,” she said, finally relaxing, at least a little bit. “Good to see you, too.”

Walter turned to Oliver’s mother. “Dear, this is Felicity Smoak. She’s the one I told you about that is absolutely revolutionizing our R&D department.”

“Ah yes,” Moira murmured. “Very lovely to meet you at last, Felicity.”

Felicity shook her hand but doubted the sincerity of what Moira said. It was safe to say that Oliver’s gentle warnings about his mother were absolutely understated. The woman was terrifying.

“Let me show you your rooms!” Thea chirped, blessedly cutting through the tension.

“Great idea, Speedy,” Oliver said. This time, he insisted on carrying her bag in addition to his own. Felicity was still flustered after meeting his mother so she allowed it, content to follow along after Oliver and his sister.

Thea babbled happily as they climbed the stairs, overlooking the living room and the massive eighteen foot windows that looked out on the lake beyond. Felicity barely heard a word as she took in her surroundings. Frosty mothers aside, this cabin was completely gorgeous.Absolutely enormous, yes. Like something she would have seen on the pages in a magazine. Maybe she had.

“Felicity, you’re in here,” Thea announced, swinging a door open. She peeked inside and nearly gasped out loud. The bedroom itself was gorgeous but the view out the huge windows was even better, looking out over the mist-shrouded lake beyond. “You’ve got an attached bathroom that connects to Oliver’s room on the other side. I’m across the hall.”

“Thank you, Thea. This is beautiful.”

“No problem,” she said, preening a little. “Hey, I’ll give you a minute to settle in but after, do you maybe want to hang out?”

“Thea…” Oliver said warningly.

“No, it’s okay. Yeah, we can hang out. I mean, we can’t go skiing and I think swimming in the lake is off the table too.”

“Exactly.” With a wink, Thea left. Oliver shook his head at his sister’s retreating back.

“I’m sorry, I can tell her to bug off if you want,” he said.

“Don’t you dare. I want to get to know her a little more, she seems really sweet,” Felicity said, swatting him on the arm.

“She’ll rope you into watching some lame teen movie,” Oliver warned.

“Just my luck, I love lame teen movies.”

Oliver ended up pulled aside by Walter to go over some paperwork regarding QC. Moira Queen was busying herself in another wing of the enormous house. That meant that Thea and Felicity had the living room to themselves. They chose to watch a teen rom-com on Netflix while they put together a giant puzzle of a European castle on the expansive coffee table. They sipped hot cocoa and munched on popcorn while they watched, worked, and talked.

Felicity found she enjoyed Thea, enjoyed talking with her. And Thea, as it turned out, had some very interesting things to say.

“So how long have you and Ollie been friends?”

“He recruited me for the job at QC so almost a year now. He charmed me right off.”

One of Thea’s eyebrows went up. “But didn’t charm your pants off?”

Felicity didn’t reply. She just shrugged. Oliver’s sister eyed her speculatively.

“Or did he?”

“We’re not dating. We’re just friends.”

Thea sat back, a knowing look on her face. “But that’s not what I asked, is it? You don’t have to be dating to have sex.”

“You’re nineteen! Where did you learn that??”

“Fanfiction,” she replied simply.

Felicity snorted. Fair enough. She wasn’t ignorant to fanfiction either and she had to admit, to herself, that the situation with Oliver was something straight out of one of Archive of Our Own’s best. But that was fantasy and this was reality. The reality was that while feelings were involved, they were one sided. Oliver just didn’t feel the same way about her.

Oliver joined them a short while later and didn’t even complain about the movie. He did complain, however, about the way Thea teased him by telling Felicity all sorts of embarrassing tales of growing up together. Her side hurt from laughing so much by the time the movie was over and even Moira’s cold attitude during dinner couldn’t quash her good mood. 

Felicity was having a good time and by the time she tucked herself into bed that night, enjoying the soft patter of rain on the window panes, she realized she’d barely thought about Adrian once the whole day.

***

Thunder rattled the panes of the windows in Oliver’s room, waking him from his sleep. It was dark outside, probably still the middle of the night. The gentle rain that had lulled him to sleep was now lashing against the side of the house as the wind made the pines around the house creak and groan ominously.

He was about to drift back off to sleep when he heard another noise that wasn’t the storm. It sounded like… whimpering? When he remembered that Felicity was in the room that adjoined his bathroom, he was out of bed like a shot.

His room and the bathroom lit up with a brilliant flash of lightning just outside, quickly followed by another crack of thunder. The door to her room was closed but Oliver didn’t hesitate before throwing it open and barreling through.

Felicity was in the bed just beyond, the covers twisted around her body as she thrashed. She was having a nightmare. More moans and whimpers came from her as he crossed quickly to her side. He sat on the edge of the bed, reaching over to cup her cheek with his palm. Felicity jerked away from his touch, her brow furrowing.

“Felicity…” Oliver gently shook her shoulder. “Wake up, honey, you’re having a nightmare.”

Suddenly, her eyes flashed open as she stilled. She was breathing hard, her chest rising and falling rapidly, as she stared at him for a long moment. Then, she blinked a few times. “Oliver?”

“Shh, shh,” he soothed. “You were having a bad dream.”

“I—I was?” She pushed up to a sitting position and Oliver scooted back to give her room. He saw as her eyes clouded. “Oh… yeah. I was.”

He patted her knee, feeling a little unsure of how best to soothe her. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I was running down a street looking for, uh… someone. And I couldn’t find him, er, them anywhere. I don’t know why but I felt like it was very important that I find them as soon as possible, that it was a matter of life and death and time was ticking out but also the more I searched the farther they got from me. It… it scared me,” she admitted.

“That sounds really scary,” he said, rubbing her knee through the bedspread.

“It was,” she said. “I felt like I was never going to see them again. It was awful.”

“I’m so sorry.” Oliver wondered, a little sullenly, who it was she’d dreamed about. He had a feeling he knew who. “Was it Adrian?” he asked her.

Felicity looked surprised. “Adrian? No! No, of course not. No, it wasn’t Adrian.”

“Who was it?” Oliver winced, shaking his head. “No, you don’t have to tell me.” He moved to stand up from the bed. She owed him no answers and he was grossly overstepping here.

But Felicity’s hand caught his, holding him there. “Wait. No… don’t go. It was… it was you, Oliver.”

“Me?” He wouldn’t have been more surprised if she’d told him she’d had a sex dream about the Queen of England. “Wait… what? You couldn’t find me? And that was scary?”

“It was terrifying,” she said solemnly. “It felt like I was losing you. I couldn’t bear it.”

In the next flash of lightning, he saw unshed tears shining in her eyes as she looked at him and his heart lurched. “Felicity…”

She swallowed. “I feel like that right now. Like I’m losing you.”

“I’m right here.” His heart was pounding. Was she saying what he thought she was saying? “I’m not going anywhere.”

“But our arrangement… I ended it and—“

“Fuck the arrangement,” he said, a little more sharply than he’d intended.

“Oliver?”

“Felicity, I want you. I can’t hide that,” he told her, his voice low. Her eyes flashed to his and he noticed a very familiar look in them. A look he hadn’t seen in about three months.

“Are you sure?” she asked softly. “I mean, I’m sure but I know you don’t—“

“Shh,” he murmured, gathering her up in his arms. “Stop talking.”

He lowered his head and began to kiss along her neck, inhaling the sweet scent of her that he’d been missing so much. Felicity hummed her appreciation, her fingers already carding through his sleep-tousled hair.

“I missed you,” she said and his heart caught in his throat, making him need to stifle a groan in the soft skin of her throat. “So much.”

Even when she was with Adrian? Oliver cursed himself silently for thinking it; now was not the time to be thinking about her douchey ex. He finally had her back in his arms and he was going to make the best of what time he had.

Oliver tugged at the hem of the tank top Felicity had been sleeping in. She reached down and grasped the fabric and together they drew it up and over her head. Oliver tossed it somewhere behind him and then he was leaning her back, laying her on the mattress and closing his lips over one of her stiff nipples.

Felicity’s moan was sweet music to his ears. Her legs came up, framing his torso as he worshipped her breasts, first one and then the other. When he flicked his tongue at the hardened peaks, she arched her back, reaching for him and clawing at him through the fabric of his t-shirt.

Frustrated by the barrier to feeling her skin against his, he drew back enough to reach behind his head, grab the neck of his shirt, and yank it off. He threw it aside, appreciating the darkened look in Felicity’s eyes before he descended upon her once more.

While he lavished one breast with attention from his lips and tongue, the other received the same from his fingers. It didn’t take very long for Felicity to cry out, stiffening as she tumbled into a small orgasm, brought about by nothing more than him giving her beautiful, perky breasts the attention they deserved.

“I’m not done yet,” he promised darkly and Felicity shuddered, opening her legs as he moved down her body. Oliver tore at the underwear she was wearing until it was just tatters of fabric and he was free to gaze at her womanhood, unencumbered. She was wet already, glistening in the low light of the room. He bent low and rubbed his nose along her hip, breathing her in, savoring her.

If he’d been a patient man, Oliver could have teased her until she was riding the crest of pleasure and begging him to touch her. But he wasn’t patient and it’d been far too long since he’d been able to taste her.

Placing a few small kisses along her pubic bone, over the curve of her thigh, Oliver settled between her legs, spreading her further. Then, on a held breath, he reached out and tasted her, licking up the delicious length of her cleft, gathering her essence on his tongue and swallowing it down greedily. Felicity’s hips jumped and he pressed them down with one hand while his other was used to open her up, exposing her clit to his hungry gaze.

He flicked his tongue over the hardened pearl, enjoying how it quivered against the tip. He blew on it and then gave it another flick. Felicity moaned sweetly and he looked up to see her touching her breasts, her fingers teasing the tips. Smirking, he returned to her clit, drawing it into his mouth and then giving it a gentle suck that had Felicity’s moan turn to a shout.

“Shhh,” he said against her wet folds, making her writhe. “You don’t want to wake the house, do you?”

“Ngghhh,” Felicity groaned, grabbing her pillow and putting it over her face. Oliver chuckled as he crept up her body, kissing along her smooth, soft skin, delighting in how she reacted to him. He nosed at the underside of her breast before licking up between her cleavage, kissing delicately at her collarbone before sucking on the juncture of her neck and shoulder. He pulled the pillow from her face, smiling down at her. She was flushed, her eyes wild.

“Hi,” he murmured. “I don’t think I have any condoms with me.”

Felicity caught her lower lip between her teeth, causing his focus to laser in on the sight. He wanted to nibble that supple flesh himself, see if it was as tender, juicy and sweet as it looked.

“I’m on the pill,” she replied softly. “Were you… with anyone? The last three months?”

If he had been looking out for his own ego, he might have lied. But this was Felicity and he never could lie to her. “I haven’t. I couldn’t.”

Her breath caught. “Oh…” Her eyes dropped to his lips before returning to his eyes. “I trust you. If— do you trust me?”

Oliver smiled. That was the simplest request on the planet as far as he was concerned. “I trust you.”

Her answering smile warmed him all over. They quickly dispatched with the remainder of his clothes so they were both bare. It felt ten times more intimate than all the times they’d been naked in one another’s presence before. It was more, somehow, than seeing each other’s exposed flesh.

Oliver rolled to his back, pulling Felicity with him so she straddled his hips. This was the view he’d missed the most, seeing her rising above him like some sort of mythical temptress. His hands lightly grasped her hips, his thumbs stroking at the skin near her abdomen while she in turn ran her hands over his chest, her fingertips lightly catching on his nipples, making him shiver.

She lifted up and he reached down to grasp his cock, already hard and straining for her, aching to be nestled in her heat and warmth. Gritting his teeth, he rubbed the swollen head through her slick folds, gathering her wetness on him and making her croon at the sensation. Then, he notched himself at her entrance, gritting his teeth as he nodded at her.

“Now, baby,” he said, coaxingly, and Felicity was ready to comply.

Slowly, she eased down onto him, her body accepting him inside of her, surrounding him in a wet, hot embrace that he felt clear down to his toes. Oliver couldn’t hold back the groan that tore out of his throat as he filled her, inch by delicious inch. Her pelvis met his, at long last and Felicity sighed, arching her back. Her hands cupped her breasts as her hair tickled the back of his thighs.

“Ohhhh fuck, you feel so good, Oliver,” she groaned.

“You too, baby,” he murmured, skating a palm up the center of her body and back down again before thumbing at her clit and making her walls clench impossibly tighter around him.

He planted his feet on the mattress and pushed up, thrusting, which made Felicity cry out softly. He set a pace which she met quickly and soon, they were moving in perfect harmony with one another. This was it, he realized. This was what true fulfillment felt like. He never wanted to give it up again.

But also, he needed more. Reaching up to band an arm around her back, supporting her, Oliver scooted back a little as he sat up with her still impaled on his rock-hard length. They were chest to chest and he kissed along her shoulder as he pushed up with his hips, crunching his abdominal muscles and Felicity planted her knees and really began to ride him, seeking her own release.

“Felicity,” he mumbled, kissing up her neck, across her jaw…

She drew back just enough to meet his eye, and he saw the same things he was feeling mirrored in her own stormy blue eyes. The one arm around her back tightened while his other hand reached up to cup the back of her head. He brought her head closer to his, her lips to his and he paused there, waiting a breathless moment. He could feel her gasps against his lips, little puffs of air.

Then, as he thrust inside her, he captured her lips with his own. The kiss was a crescendo, overwhelming the thunder still rumbling outside the windows. She tasted better than he could have imagined. She kissed him back fiercely, her tongue flicking at his lips as he opened for her, letting his own tongue dance with hers, solidifying their joining in the most intimate way he knew how. 

They reached their climax like that, locked together and tongues in each other’s mouths, groaning out their release and shuddering in each other’s arms.

Oliver flopped back onto the pillows and Felicity joined him, draping over his chest. He was still lodged inside her, softening now, but she gave no sign that she was ready to separate them yet. He could feel the wild patter of her pulse through his own chest and he tightened his arms around her, holding her close as he fought to regain his breath and his wits.

He’d kissed her. On the mouth. Oliver had absolutely zero regrets about it, he’d been wanting to kiss her for ages now. But she had to know what that meant for him. And he was a bit nervous about what her reaction would be. He hoped with all he had that she would be on the same page as him. He thought he’d seen something in her eyes… something that said she was right there with him. Hopefully, it hadn’t just been heat of the moment.

Right now, Oliver felt Felicity stroking his chest as her breathing evened out. He stroked her back in time, reveling in this closeness, enjoying having her back in his bed after all this time. He wanted to talk to her, he had so many things to say, but exhaustion crept in, pulling him down into slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I've said "so, that happened" before but now I'm *really* saying it. THAT HAPPENED.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity both grapple with the aftermath of their night together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry, I totally spaced on updating yesterday. I nearly forgot today too. I swear, it's this whole year, messing with my whole perception of time! Anyone else experiencing that too? I've lost entire days lately. LOL! 
> 
> I love that you guys loved the last chapter so much. I knew you would! It was a long time coming! 
> 
> But uh... well... story ain't over yet!

It was the sound of rain that woke her, but the happy chirping of birds outside of her window. Blinking her eyes open, Felicity realized it was morning but the sky was still filled with dark clouds, threatening that rain might still be on the agenda.

She was warm, content. Parts of her ached but in the most glorious way. Felicity smiled as she stretched, enjoying the burn of her muscles. After her nightmare, Oliver had stayed with her. They’d had sex. But was it just sex? It felt like they’d made love, the act so much more intense and intimate than usual with them. He’d kissed her.

Holy shit. Oliver had _kissed her_. Her eyes flashed open at the memory of it. It’d been every bit as amazing as she had thought it would be. He was an amazing kisser, which was no surprise. But… oh god. It’d been absolutely glorious. Felicity couldn’t help but wonder what it meant.

They’d also actually slept together, another thing that just didn’t happen with them. That particular realization was just filling her mind when she turned over to see if Oliver was awake only to find that he was… not there.

The spot that he had slept was empty but she could see signs that he had slept there. The blankets were rumpled, the pillow was freshly used. Everything smelled like him, that fantastic scent of his that she’d been denied for three long months. But he was no longer there. 

Frowning, Felicity sat up, clutching the blanket to her bare chest. For a crazy moment, she wondered if she’d imagined it all but… she knew she hadn’t. Still… where was he now?

She got out of bed and padded into the bathroom. The door to Oliver’s room was open and he wasn’t anywhere in there. She took care of business, splashed a little water on her face and ran her brush through her hair before returning to her room to throw some clothes on. Some leggings and an oversized sweatshirt was enough for the time being, she felt.

Then, she struck out to find Oliver. Out in the hall, however, she did find Thea just leaving her own room. “Morning, Felicity!” she chirped.

“Good morning, Thea. Hey, have you seen Oliver?” she asked.

Thea nodded, her brown, wavy hair bouncing around her shoulders. “Yeah, he was downstairs before, having a little coffee in the kitchen. I came up when mom came down, wanted to get a shower in and all that.”

Felicity nodded. “Yeah I’ll probably get my shower here soon, I just wanted to find him before I did.”

Thea winked at her, making her blush a little. God, she hoped the girl hadn’t heard them last night. If she had, she gave no indication. That was fine by her. Not that what they’d done was wrong but it felt weird to talk about it with his sister before she had a chance to really talk about it with him.

“C’mon, I’ll go down with you,” Thea offered. “Breakfast should be ready by now, Walter was flipping pancakes before so I expect a huge stack ready and waiting for us.”

Felicity’s stomach rumbled. “God, that sounds marvelous. I’m starving.”

Walter was in the kitchen when they arrived but not Oliver or Moira. “They’re out on the sunporch,” Walter explained. “We set up a table out there, near the space heaters. It’s a lovely view of the lake this morning.”

“Thanks, Walter,” Thea said. Oliver hadn’t shown her the sunporch the night before so Felicity let Thea lead the way. They were just approaching the expansive enclosed patio when they heard voices and Thea paused.

Felicity was about to ask why they were stopping when she looked back to catch her eye. Then, in some sort of sick echo of that afternoon at the courthouse, she heard what was being said in the room beyond.

“I’m just warning you, Oliver,” Moira was saying.Was her voice disapproving or was Felicity imagining that?

“And I’m saying you have nothing to warn me about,” Oliver replied. He sounded testy, annoyed.

“If that’s true, then why is she here? It’s not like you to bring a girl here if you aren’t sleeping with them. I’m sorry to be blunt, Oliver, but it’s true.”

Felicity froze. It felt like the blood was draining from her face and Thea’s eyes were wide.

“She just broke up with her boyfriend, Mother. I brought her here to cheer her up. That’s all.” There was a heartbreaking pause before Oliver continued. “I promise you. There's no 'relationship' between Felicity and I. Give me a little credit."

Panic surged through her and she began to backpedal away from the sunporch.

“Felicity, no… wait,” Thea said, reaching for her.

“I have to go,” she mumbled, dodging the other girl’s grasp.

She couldn’t think. She could barely see two steps in front of her as she bolted for her room. No sooner had she gotten there then Thea burst in behind her. “Felicity, don’t do something rash.”

“Thea, you heard what he said.” Where had she put her suitcase? Oh, yes. It was in the closet. Felicity hauled it out and tossed it onto the bed. Thea sat next to it.

“I did. And I have to assume that you have feelings for my brother otherwise what he said wouldn’t have upset you like this.”

“Thea… I—I can’t talk about it,” she groaned as she hurriedly grabbed her things from the dresser and tossed them haphazardly into her bag.

“Fair enough. I won’t push. But I will say this; talk to Ollie and hear what he has to say before you go.”

It felt like her heart was ripping in two. The thought of having to look at him and hear him tell her that he didn’t want a relationship with her was unbearable. After last night, the kiss… no. She couldn’t do it.

“Thea…” Felicity pleaded. She plopped onto the bed next to her. “I can’t.”

Thea patted her back, rubbing. “Okay. Okay, I get it. Can I help you?”

Felicity grabbed her phone off the bedside table and looked up transportation options out of Cedar Glen. There wasn’t much but… she could get a cab. It would be outrageously expensive to pay for a ride the 45 miles back to Starling but it was a small price to pay right then.

“Could you give me a ride into town?”

She looked as if she’d like to protest but to her credit, she swallowed it back. “Okay. When would you like to go?”

“Now?”

Thea sighed. “Okay. But I want your promise that we’ll be friends for life, regardless of what happens with you and Ollie. Deal?”

That made her smile. She shook the girl’s hand. “Deal.”

The smile didn’t last long. They were able to get out of the house without running into Oliver or Moira, which Felicity had some mixed feelings about. She knew that if she saw Oliver that her resolve would waver and she would likely do something stupid, like throw herself into his arms and forget everything she’d overheard.

Once in town, Thea stayed with her while she waited for the cab. She even bought them both ridiculously expensive coffee drinks from the posh coffee stand. She knew the other girl was trying to cheer her up and appreciated the effort. But it was lost on her. Her heart was cracking in two.

Twice in one week she’d overheard men in her life talking about her. True, the tone of what Oliver had said was far less abusive than what she’d heard Adrian say but… somehow, it hurt more.

Felicity knew it was because she’d fallen in love with Oliver. Yes, she’d cared for Adrian and she’d hoped to fall in love with him eventually but losing him didn’t sting nearly as much because, as she realized now, she hadn’t been as invested in her relationship with him. Because of Oliver. The things Adrian had said bruised her ego and infuriated her sense of self and righteousness. What Oliver had said had taken her hope and stomped it into the dirt.

Somehow, the latter felt so much worse.

When her cab came, Thea gave her a big hug as the driver put Felicity’s things in the trunk. “What should I tell Ollie?” she asked.

The million dollar question. “Tell him… I don’t know. Tell him I got a call from my mother or something like that. Don’t tell him that I overheard the conversation, okay?”

The girl looked reluctant. “Felicity, he should know—“

“No. Just… tell him I got a call and had to go. That’s all. Okay?”

Thea sighed. “Okay. I will.”

It was a long drive back to Starling and Felicity didn’t feel up to engaging the driver in much small talk. Instead, she stared out the window and mourned the loss of what could have been between her and Oliver. It was all because of her and her stupid, hopeful heart. She’d really let herself believe there could be something between them more than just fuck buddies. She wanted, badly, to be mad at herself. She wanted to rage over her stupidity. But her anger at her own dumb naiveté was overrun by sadness.

She and Oliver were over before they’d really had a chance to start.

***

Oliver had been out of his mind for three days and he was at his wit’s end.

Felicity never came downstairs on Sunday for breakfast. At first he’d thought she was just sleeping in. After all, he’d done a fine job of wearing her out the night before. Several times during the night, in fact. But when she hadn’t shown an hour later, nearing eleven o’clock in the morning, he’d gotten worried. As soon as the meal was finished, he’d excused himself upstairs.

Oliver had burst into her room, not even bothering to knock. His panic had proven prescient; she wasn’t there. Her suitcase and things were gone.

She’d left.

All without even so much as a word to him. He’d felt hurt and then scared. Neither his mother nor Walter had spoken to her before she left which left Thea.

His little sister could be quite cryptic and he’d never been very good at telling when she was lying or not. She’d seen Felicity, she said, and all she’d said before leaving was that she got a message and had to go. Thea had offered her a ride into town where she was catching a cab.

That had calmed him for all of two minutes. Maybe it’d been work. But then, wouldn’t Walter have been privy to a QC emergency? Wouldn’t he? Perhaps it was one of her friends. But all her friends in Starling were his friends too. Wouldn’t they have let him know of any emergency at the same time? He had no messages from any of them.

That really only left Felicity’s mother. That was the likeliest answer but it didn’t explain why Felicity hadn’t let him know before she left. Even just a text to say she had to go. Something. No, something was off and it kicked up a flock of butterflies in his stomach.

Had she left simply because she regretted the night they’d shared?

That must be it. He felt sick about it as he’d packed up his own bag, wished his family a rushed goodbye and took off for Starling after her. He tried to call her repeatedly but his calls kept going to voicemail. His texts went unanswered. Dread nestled in his gut like a lead weight.

Back in Starling, he’d gone to her place but there was no answer when he knocked. He couldn’t tell if she was home or not. There was nothing for him to do but go home and wait for her to contact him.

By Monday morning, there’d been no word from her. Oliver went in to work as usual, hoping he’d see her there. When he tried to visit her in her office, her assistant had told him that ‘Ms. Smoak is busy all day and asked not to be disturbed.’

Yeah, something was definitely wrong.

It was the same story on Tuesday and by then, Oliver was out of patience. He was worried, yes, but he was also mad. She could at least answer him! Let him know she was okay! Tell him what he’d done wrong! Most of that day was spent seething in his office, getting nothing productive done whatsoever. He’d spoken with Tommy and Ronnie both, neither of them had heard from her. They commiserated with him but were really no help considering their best advice was to go out and get drunk with them after work.

Not helpful.

After work, Oliver tried one last time. He sent her a text, laying it all out there.

Please. Just let me know if you’re okay. If you never want to see me again, tell me. That’s all I ask.—7:32pm

He waited. Dinner was a hopeless endeavor as he had no appetite but he was able to choke down a sandwich while he watched a baseball game on TV.

Finally, his phone chimed with a reply from Felicity.

I’m okay. I’m not saying that I never want to see you again, I just need some time. Please, can you give me that?—8:57pm

Oliver sighed and dropped his phone onto the sofa cushion. He was glad to hear from her but no closer to understanding why she left. He grabbed his phone and thumbed out a quick reply.

I can leave you alone and I promise I will but will you answer me this? Will you tell me why you left?—8:58pm

Maybe he was overstepping, maybe he wasn’t. But he had to know. He didn’t have to wait as long for an answer.

I was wrong. I made a mistake. —9:00pm

Oliver stared at the screen for a long minute. That hadn’t been what he was expecting at all. Part of him was still holding out for “My mom had an emergency” but realistically he was expecting “I’m not ready for a relationship.” Given she’d just broken up with her boyfriend of nearly three months, that would have been understandable, though she still should have said something to him before now. But “I made a mistake”? “I was wrong”?

He’d gotten her consent, her enthusiastic consent, several times that night. Nothing about the way she’d responded to him said she was making a mistake. Unless she woke up in the morning and regretted it because she wasn’t ready for a relationship and that was the mistake?

But then, why would she say she was wrong? Wrong about what? That made it sound like she’d slept with him believing one thing but woke up the next morning realizing that the thing she believed wasn’t true after all. Holy shit, he was giving himself a migraine thinking about this.

Frustrated, Oliver brought up Thea’s cell number in his contacts and called her. She had to know something more than she’d told him. He couldn’t believe for a minute that she would have driven Felicity into town without getting some sort of firm answer on what the reason was. His sister was way too nosey to just let it go without the third degree.

“Hey, Ollie,” she answered.

“Thea, we need to talk.”

“Geez, you sound rough. Felicity still not talking to you?”

“Not really. Listen… I need to know why she left on Sunday. Nothing she’s said makes any sense and I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

There was a pause before his sister’s answer. “I’m not supposed to tell you. She asked me not to.”

Shit. “I don’t want to step on your friendship with her but I have to know, Thea. I can’t make it better if I don’t know. Shit, I don’t even know if it’s something I can make better.”

Thea sighed audibly. “Okay. Well, riddle me this one, big brother: You love Felicity.”

“—now wait, Thea, I never—“

“You love her. So why would you say what you did to Mom before breakfast.”

Oliver frowned. “What are you talking about? What did I say?”

“On the sunporch,” Thea prompted. “You and mom were talking. She was warning you and you assured her there was no relationship between you and Felicity.”

He was absolutely aghast. “You heard that?”

“We both did. Felicity and I. I walked downstairs with her, we heard you talking and Felicity just bolted. She couldn’t get out of there fast enough.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. “Oh, god. I fucked this up,” he groaned.

“Yeah, you did. She was completely devastated. I’m not entirely sure why but I would hazard a guess that she has feelings for you and hearing you say that just crushed her hopes.”

“She’d just broken up with her boyfriend because she overheard him saying nasty things about her to a colleague. And now she heard me saying something and probably doesn’t understand the context—“

“Yeah, I’d say that’s likely. What was the context anyhow?”

“Mom was warning me to be careful, because Felicity is a smart, accomplished woman and she works for the family company. She was worried that I was going to treat her like I’ve treated all my past… conquests.”

“Gross, Ollie. So why did you tell her you weren’t in a relationship if you love her - and I know you do because I watched you moon over her the whole time you were there.”

He blew out a frustrated breath. “Because… because I hadn't even talked with Felicity yet aboutit. I couldn't go and tell my mother I was in a relationship when Felicity and I hadn't officially said anything. It’s none of her business! Felicity and I… we… we slept together that night—“

“I knew it! I could tell it from her face that morning! She had that ‘I just did the deed’ look on her face!”

“—and it was special, different. Things between us changed and I wanted to talk to her about it before I made any declarations to anyone else.”

“Aww, that’s sweet, Ollie.”

“Thanks.”

“No, really! I wouldn’t have thought you capable! You’ve grown!”

“Thea, I’m ten years older than you,” he said, exasperated.

“Be that as it may, you have to admit your track record in the romance department hasn’t been all that in the past,” she replied.

“Fair enough. So tell me; how do I make it up to her? She will barely talk to me. She says she needs time.”

“Well… I think you need to give her a little time, big brother.”

He groaned.

“Not too much time! But like, don’t go running over there tonight with a boombox and a copy of ‘In Your Eyes.’”

“Noted. So what do I do?”

“Give her a couple of days, no more. Then do something grand. Something meaningful.”

“That’s super vague, Thea.”

“Listen, I don’t know you guys’ history. You do. Pick something that will remind her of how far you’ve come together or something. God, Ollie, don’t you watch any romantic comedies?”

“Not if I can help it,” he grumbled.

“You want to show her that you love her and that you’re in it for the long haul… you are, aren’t you?”

He hadn’t really thought too long and hard about it but… “Yeah, I think I am.”

“Okay then, well… you’re halfway there,” she told him.

Oliver hung up with Thea and sat on the sofa for a long time, thinking of what he could do to try to win Felicity back. He hoped his sister was right, that Felicity loved him half as much as he loved her. It sounded like she did. And, knowing now what had set Felicity off and running from the cabin on Sunday, it seemed like maybe she did.

He bit back a smile, thinking about Felicity being in love with him. It was everything he’d wanted but never thought he’d get to have. He just had to convince her to give him a shot to explain and make it up to her. He couldn’t mess this up now. No more fuckups. Time to get real.

***

Felicity was miserable. The first few days she’d been in a state of shock, most likely. Then, she’d answered a couple of Oliver’s texts on Tuesday night and that had made her really spiral down. So badly, in fact, that she’d called her mom that night to unload on her.

By Wednesday, she wasn’t feeling any better so at work she’d called up Sara to talk to her and get her advice on the situation. Sara had agreed to meet for drinks after work and Felicity had been nearly useless all afternoon, waiting.

Sara was at the bar near Felicity’s apartment when she got there. A gin and tonic sat waiting for her at the table Sara had secured for them near the back of the room.

“Oh thank god,” Felicity groaned as she slipped into the seat. Lifting the drink, she took a long pull from it while Sara smirked at her.

“You really needed that,” she noticed.

“I really did. Thank you. You’re a goddess among women.” Felicity took another long drink. God, this was good. Just what she needed.

“You feel ready to tell me what’s eating you?” Sara asked. “I have a sneaking suspicion it’s related to whatever has been eating Oliver.”

She grimaced. “You’ve seen Oliver?”

“Briefly. I saw him at the grocery store on Monday and the boy looked like someone had shot his new puppy. You look a bit like that yourself. So spill.”

After taking another gulp of her drink, Felicity launched into the tale. She left out a few details, particularly about the night they spent together, but the gist was there. When she finished, Sara’s eyebrows were somewhere up near her hairline.

“Wow. That is… a lot. I mean, I sorta suspected you two were catching feelings but I had no idea it got this messy.”

“Sara,” Felicity whined. “A, that’s not helpful. B, you’re only half right. I have the feelings, he does not.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, my blonde, be-spectacled friend. That boy is every bit as sunk as you are.”

Felicity made a face as she finished off her drink and signaled the waitress for another. “I think you’re wrong there. If he was then why would he tell his mother that we’re not in a relationship? The way we were with each other that night… that was relationship stuff. He said he wasn’t interested in an arrangement anymore. So what was I? A booty call?” The hurt bloomed anew and she had to blink back tears.

Sara reached out and rubbed her arm soothingly. “I’m sure there’s an explanation. And you owe it to the friendship you guys have to hear his side of it, okay?”

“I know…” she said, miserable. The waitress dropped off a fresh drink and Felicity immediately took a bracing sip. “I just feel like such a fool. I went into this promising myself I wasn’t going to fall in love, that I wasn’t looking for a relationship and now look at me. Lovesick and heartbroken.”

“That’s life sometimes, though,” Sara said. “You can make all the plans you want but fate takes a hand. Trust me, take it from someone who has seen you and Ollie together, you two are fated.”

Felicity managed a small smile for her friend. “Thanks, Sara.”

After drinks, it wasn’t far to walk back to her apartment. When Felicity got there, she was surprised to find the apartment wasn’t empty.

“Baby!” Her mother’s shrill exclamation pierced the air. Seconds after closing the door behind her, Felicity was engulfed in a hug full of sequins and cheap perfume. Donna was in town again.

“Mom, what are you doing here?”

“You were so upset on the phone last night that I had to switch shifts with Susie and come right up to Starling to comfort you in person.”

That made her chuckle. She hugged her mom back, breathing in the familiar scent of her shampoo. “Thanks, mom.”

Her love life might be in shambles at the moment but all was not lost. She had friends, like Sara, and family, like her mom. She had people who loved her and cared for her and wanted her to be happy.

Felicity didn’t know whether or not to trust in Sara’s assessment of things with her and Oliver. She was on the outside, looking in. And, save for that night they made love, Oliver had always been very clear and firm about remaining just friends and their intimate relationship being just about sex. It was Felicity that had changed the rules without telling him. The heartbreak was hers alone to bear.

But she knew Sara was right about one thing; she needed to talk to Oliver. Eventually. Maybe once the sting wasn’t so fresh.

The one thing that she regretted, more than anything else in the world, was that falling for Oliver Queen had ruined their fantastic friendship. There was no going back after this. And the knowledge of that hurt her more than anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *runs and hides*


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver puts his plan into action. Will he crack the ice around Felicity's heart?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've reached the end! An enormous thank you and many hugs to the folks who have read along with me and been patient the weeks I've forgotten to post on time. 😉 I hope you enjoy this ending and find it a satisfying cap on this story. I had such a great time writing this. I'm so happy to share it with you all. 
> 
> I've been trying to write another story to share with you all. The Smoaking Billionaires story hasn't worked out. Neither has the fairy tale AU I'd planned. Or the rockstar AU. (Hopefully each of these three will show up EVENTUALLY, but for the time being they're not working out) Right now, I'm in the beginning phases of writing something different. It's got some A/B/O themes, much like my "Burning It Down" story but with a few key differences. Firstly, there's no relation to canon. It's entirely AU. Secondly, there's shifters involved. I *love* the plan for this story so fingers are crossed I am able to finish it so I can share it with you all. 
> 
> Lastly, (and then I'll leave you to read the update, I promise!) this chapter hasn't been beta'd yet. I forgot to remind my tireless beta @andachippedcup and I remembered belatedly that it was in fact Monday and I generally post an update on Monday. I think. God, I can't even remember right now. This is what quarantine has done to me. Either way, I'm posting this without the chapter being perused by her first so I apologize for any problems, I own them solely. 
> 
> Without further ado: the last chapter!

Oliver had a plan. He thought it was a pretty good plan, too. He thought about Thea had said about finding something meaningful to their past relationship. And he couldn’t help but remember that first weekend she’d come to Starling, when he’d shown her around town. That had been one of the best weekends of his life. They’d had such a great time together.

His plan required a little research, which he did online at work when he wasn’t busy with actual work things. What he learned surprised him and he knew Felicity would be delighted.

Or at least, that was the hope.

It was Friday. It’d been a few days, per Thea’s urging, and he hoped that was enough time to let Felicity be alone. Not with him, at least. He’d heard from Sara that they’d met for drinks. His friend hadn’t filled him in on what they’d talked about but the knowing look she’d given him said that she knew what had happened and she had questions of her own. He would explain it, after he had a chance to explain to Felicity.

It was just after lunch and he knew Felicity was at work because he’d checked with her assistant before he left the office. He had a notecard in hand that he planned to leave at her apartment, wedged in the door for her to find when she returned home. He could have left it with her assistant but he didn’t quite trust that the woman wouldn’t just promptly throw it in the garbage, at Felicity’s request. Plus, leaving the note at her door felt more personal. This wasn’t about work at all, it was about _them._

He got to Felicity’s apartment and was wedging the note into the doorframe when suddenly the door snapped open. His heart leapt into his throat and then he saw that it was Donna Smoak. She looked just as shocked to see him as he was to see her.

The shock quickly faded, however, and a disapproving frown appeared on the older woman’s face. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“Uh…” Oliver lifted the note and waved it in explanation.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a note. For Felicity.”

“Let me see it.” Donna snatched it out of his hands before he could reply. She was considerably less pleased to see him than she had been when he first met her and he felt the sting of it as he watched her open the note. He remembered what he had wrote as she read through it.

_Dear Felicity,_

_I know you requested some time before I tried to speak to you again and I hope the last few days have been enough. Please know, I’m not reading out in an effort to push you past what you’re comfortable with. But I would like a chance to explain what you heard my mother and I discussing._

_If you are ready to listen and to hear my apology, I would like you to meet me at the Starling City Zoo on Saturday at 1pm. You remember the zoo, right? We went there that first weekend you came to town. We had a lot of fun that day._

_I hope to see you there. I will be by the Eurasian Beaver exhibit._

_Sincerely, Oliver Queen_

Donna looked up at him, the glare gone from her expression. Now, she simply looked curious. “What’s this about?” she asked.

“Can I come in?” he asked.

She hesitated for a moment and then stepped back to let him through the door. Donna went to the sofa and sat, looking at him expectantly. Oliver sat next to her.

“I didn’t mean to hurt your daughter,” he told her. “Believe me, that is the last thing I ever wanted to do.”

Donna regarded him shrewdly before nodding. “I believe you. But also, she was hurt. And my daughter is my life, Oliver. I will always take her side and I will always want to protect her.”

“I understand that and believe me, I appreciate it. Felicity needs people like that in her life. The more, the better.”

That made the other woman smile. “I’m glad we agree.”

“This is all a misunderstanding,” he said. “I have feelings for her. And for a long time, I tried to keep those feelings to myself because I thought it was what she wanted. I let her go out and date Adrian without saying anything, even though it killed me a little inside to do it. Last weekend, I really had intended to just take her away from the city and get her mind off of him. But then we…” Oliver paused, blushing.

Donna smirked. “It’s okay. Felicity told me. You two slept together.”

“Yeah, we did. And it was different. I kissed her.”

“You don’t kiss many women, I gather. That’s the impression Felicity gave me.”

“Only if I’m serious about them. This thing with Felicity and I, we started off intending to keep it casual. I thought agreeing not to kiss would help us from blurring the lines.”

She nodded. “Okay, so you kissed her because you weren’t interesting on keeping that line clear anymore, correct?”

“Correct.” Oliver went on to explain what had happened that disastrous morning, what he’d been talking to his mother about what Felicity had overheard him saying really meant. When he was finished, Donna blew out a breath and shook her head.

“What a mess.”

“I don’t disagree.”

“Okay, so what is your plan with this zoo thing. And why the zoo? Why not here or your place or some place else.”

Quickly, he explained their first visit to the zoo and then told her what he wanted to do this time. As he spoke, Donna’s expression softened. By the time he finished, she was smiling warmly.

“That’s pretty damn sweet,” she remarked. “Okay, I’m in. What can I do to help.”

That buoyed his spirits immensely. “You can give her that card, maybe?”

Donna shook her head. “Nah, I think the zoo should be a surprise for her. At least, your involvement in it. Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll ask her to take me there, say that I’ve heard it’s a great zoo and I’d really like to go. I can make sure she’s at the beaver exhibit by 1pm.”

Oliver couldn’t believe his luck. “You would do that for me?”

Donna smirked. “I’m a romantic at heart, Oliver. I believe you love my daughter. I believed it months ago, when I walked in on you two. I like this plan you have and I think you have a chance to make things right in a way that will mean a lot to her. I’m on Felicity’s team but it turns out, her team is the same as your team.”

He liked the sound of that. Impulsively, he reached out and hugged Felicity’s mother. “Thank you, Donna.”

“No need to thank me,” she murmured, hugging him back. “Just let me help plan the wedding and we’re all settled.”

***

Saturday dawned the first truly “nice” day of Spring they’d had so far. The sun was shining, the clouds were puffs of cotton candy and the breeze was light, not chilly.

“I want to get out of the apartment, go do something outside,” Donna said as they both sipped their coffee and snacked on muffins Felicity had picked up on her way home from work the night before.

“Okay, what did you have in mind?” she asked. Starling offered no end to the list of outdoor delights… when the weather was good, that is.

“I was thinking about the zoo.”

Felicity paused. The zoo was so tied to her memories of her and Oliver and how they became friends. “Why the zoo?” she asked, hoping she sounded more casual than she felt.

Her mother shrugged. “I heard the zoo here is amazing. We don’t have one down in Vegas and it’s been so long since I’ve been to one. It’s a lovely day to be walking around outside too.”

“Okay,” she said. “We can do the zoo. Now? Or later?”

“How about we do a little shopping first, grab some lunch someplace and then go? It’ll be much warmer in the afternoon, probably.”

That made sense. Felicity dressed in a new sundress she’d purchased a couple weeks back in anticipation of nice weather. It came just past her knees, a rich navy-blue color with big buttons down the side. The neckline was squared off, framed by spaghetti straps. With her hair down and allowed to wave naturally around her shoulders, it looked breezy and fun. She put on some sandals that looked great but also were easy to walk in and met her mother at the door to begin their excursion.

They hit Hyde Street for shopping, one of the trendier spots in town for high end boutiques and unique finds. It was always a bit of a mixed bag, shopping with her mother. The woman could be critical of her clothing selections and try to push more revealing items on her that Felicity felt weren’t her style. Today, however, her mother was the very picture of accommodation and actually applauded the swimsuit she ended up picking out.

“It’s so cute,” she gushed as they walked from the store. Felicity swung the paper bag with her new swimsuit in it from her fingertips as they strolled down the street. “I love the little bows at the hips.”

“I was surprised by how well it looked on me,” Felicity admitted. Trying on swimsuits was always a soul sucking endeavor that she was surprised it’d gone so well.

“It really did. I admit, I might have selected something a bit more revealing for myself—“

“Shocker.”

“—But that style looks perfect on you. I can’t wait for… well, I can’t wait for you to have a chance to wear it.”

They went to lunch next, a cute cafe that had recently opened up near the zoo. Felicity listened to her mother talk about her friends in Vegas and the new guy she was dating. “You’ll have to bring him up here sometime so I can meet him.”

“Or… you can come down there. The plane flies both ways, Felicity.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She hadn’t been back to Vegas very many times since leaving home at 18, mostly because she’d been so eager to leave her hometown behind. But maybe she was due for a visit.

They lingered over lunch, enjoying some wine with their meal and chatting. It was nice to spend the time with her mother like this and she could tell her mother was enjoying it too.

When they finished, they headed for the zoo. Felicity paid their tickets and they went in. There was a good crowd today, no doubt eager to enjoy the nice weather like they had been. Felicity picked up a brochure and was looking at the map, about to suggest they start with the reptiles when her mother looked at her watch and gasped.

“What is it?” Felicity asked.

“Uh, nothing. I just realized there’s one animal I want to see more than anything else,” Donna said quickly. She snatched the brochure from Felicity’s hand and consulted it. Then, she reached for her hand and tugged her in a different direction. “Come on, this way.”

Puzzled but amused, Felicity allowed herself to be pulled along after her mother. She hadn’t known Donna was this into animals. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“It’s right up here,” her mother called over her shoulder.

They came around a bend and Felicity’s attention was torn from the animals as she recognized the man standing just next to one of the exhibits.

Oliver.

Felicity stumbled to a stop as she realized Oliver wasn’t just there on chance. He was… waiting for her. He saw her immediately, his attention focusing in on her. She turned to see her mother had moved off to the side. She was smiling and gesturing her to go to Oliver.

“Mom?” What the heck was going on here?

“Just listen to what he has to say, honey.”

This was a set up, Felicity realized. Her mother had brought her here on purpose. But why? The other night she’d commiserated with Felicity over how awful Oliver was to say what he did after they did what they did. And now she was pushing them together? She sent her mother a dark look before taking a deep breath and approaching Oliver.

“Oliver, what’s going on here?” she asked him.

“I’m just asking that you give me a chance to explain,” he said.

Felicity glanced around and noticed they were at the Eurasian Beaver exhibit. Her brow creased. “Why here?”

“I’ll get to that,” he told her. “Will you hear me out?”

She sighed. “Okay. I’ll listen.” Then, she steeled herself to hear that he really only saw her as a friend and that night was a fluke. It was going to kill her all over again to hear it but apparently, they both needed the closure.

Oliver crossed to her until he stood right in front of her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke on Sunday. I thought I would let you sleep, you looked so peaceful there and I’d kept you up quite a bit of the night.”

Felicity flushed at the memory but forced herself to keep her eyes on his.

“I was full of nervous energy, excited. So I went downstairs for some coffee, just for something to do. I was just thinking about bringing you a cup when my mom asked me to help set up the table on the sunporch for us to eat breakfast out there. That’s when she confronted me with concerns about you and I. She assumed we were together, said it was all in the way we looked at each other. I was panicking… I didn’t want to confirm anything to her before I had a chance to clear it with you. Because if you weren’t on the same page, I didn’t want to embarrass you, especially since you work for my family’s company.”

She had to admit that was a pretty good point. She nodded and he went on.

“She said she was worried about you, actually. She said you were so smart and accomplished and given my track record with women, she didn’t want me to derail you from what she saw was a very bright future.”

Felicity couldn’t keep the surprise off her face. That was _not_ what she assumed Moira Queen’s assessment of her was. To hear that the matriarch really thought that highly of her after all touched her more than she would have thought.

“I tried to assure her that hurting you was the furthest thing from my mind. And because I hadn’t had the chance to talk to you yet, I denied any relationship. I didn’t want to speak for you. And I wanted to make sure I told you that I wanted to be all in with you before I told my mother.”

Felicity blinked back tears. “Oliver… I had no idea…” She was floored. “I thought your mother didn’t even like me.”

He smiled gently at her. “Oh, she absolutely liked you. In fact, you must have left before you could hear her giving me the third degree about why I wasn’t with you yet and what was the matter with me.”

A surprised laugh erupted out of her, and a tear splashed down her cheek. “Yes, I absolutely missed that part. But… Oliver, does this mean…?”

He took a step closer to her, reaching up to cup her cheek. “Does this mean that I have feelings for you? That I want us to have a real relationship? Yes, Felicity, it does.”

She blinked back more tears and tried to calm herself. Could she trust this? “But you were so firm about not wanting a relationship!” she protested.

“And so were you,” he pointed out. “Look, do you see where I had your mother bring you today?”

Felicity looked out at the exhibit, at the beavers working industriously on their dam across the water feature. “Yes? What do beavers have to do with anything?” she asked. Then, she swatted him gently. “If you make a sex joke right now, I swear to god…”

Oliver chuckled. “No, it’s not a sex joke. I had you come here for a reason. Because I wanted to talk to you about the Eurasian Beaver.”

She furrowed her brow. “Okay? Why?”

“These beavers live on freshwater lakes and rivers all across Eurasia. They’re what’s known as a keystone species. By cutting down trees to build their dams, they block up water and create wetlands that support so many other species. They’re super useful, in that way. Also, they tend to live in small groups, usually with a breeding pair and their offspring. They eat mostly tree bark, roots and water plants.”

“Did you memorize all of that?” she asked, peering at the plaque set up outside the exhibit that listed most of that information.

“I got it off Google. Anyhow, that isn’t even the most interesting stuff about these lil guys,” he told her. “Did you know that they’re one of the most monogamous creatures in the wild? Most of the breeding pairs stay together for life.”

“Is that so?” she asked, watching the beavers with new appreciation.

“Mmhmm. It means these beavers stay together for more than one season, which isn’t really common in the animal kingdom. Less than 5% of animals stay together for life, some say. The females are the dominant one in the relationship—“

“Good for her.”

“—and the pair remain faithful. Do you understand what a big deal that is? Most monogamous animals will stay together but won’t be faithful but those that have studied Eurasian beavers discovered that the offspring were 100% the product of the breeding pair. None of the females were ever impregnated by other beavers. There’s no cheating in their society.”

Felicity turned her attention back to Oliver. “What, are you serious?”

He nodded, grinning. “Yes. Now, their North American counterparts do cheat, about half the time according to similar studies.”

“I feel like there’s a joke against Americans in here somewhere,” she murmured, getting into what he was saying.

“Scientists don’t know why the North American beavers behave different. Especially since monogamy is seen as a smart life strategy. It reduces the rate of partners deserting their mates and leaving them and their offspring vulnerable. It also reduces the risk of parasite transmission. It keeps the population healthier, overall.”

“Sounds like the Eurasian beavers know what’s what then,” she remarked.

“Indeed. However, the Eurasian beaver is found to be more aggressive than it’s North American counterpart. Scientists believe that’s because it they will defend their mates and their territory very aggressively.”

“This is all really fascinating, Oliver,” she said, “but what’s the point? Why are you telling me this?”

“Because, Felicity… I’ve realized that I’m not a Bonobo monkey. I’m a Eurasian beaver. And you’re my mate.”

Her mouth fell open. Holy shit. Was he for real?? She remembered all too clearly their last visit to the zoo, where they’d stopped by the Bonobo monkey exhibit and learned about how promiscuous they were, flitting from mate to mate so casually, always in the mood for some sex. It was those monkeys that made Felicity start to think about what it might be like to have a casual relationship, hopefully with Oliver. S

Now, after everything, after she’d fallen in love with him despite her best efforts, Oliver was telling her he wasn’t a promiscuous monkey but a monogamous and faithful beaver? And that he wanted her as his mate?

“Do you mean it, Oliver?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“With everything in me, Felicity,” he murmured. “Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with you. I want to have a real relationship with you. I’m serious about this.”

“I’m the one you want?” Somehow, she just couldn’t believe it. Was she really that lucky?

“You are,” he said, using the hand cupping her cheek to rub against her skin. “If you want me, that is.”

A sob burst out of her, unbidden. “If I want you? Oliver! I ran away from your family’s cabin because I was in love with you and I thought you didn’t feel the same way as I do. Now you’re telling me that you do?”

Oliver’s smile deepened. “So that’s a yes?”

“Yes, you dummy!” she cried. Felicity lifted up on her toes and he bent to meet her halfway, their lips joining ina joyous kiss. Her tears mingled with his smile as his arms wrapped around her, crushing her tightly against him. Dimly, she was ware of applause around them and realized they must have gathered a bit of a crowd.

She didn’t care. The only thing she cared about was Oliver and how his lips were moving against hers, how how his hands were caressing her through the fabric of her dress, and how he loved her, apparently every bit as much as she loved him.

How had she gotten so lucky?

The answer didn’t matter. Felicity had learned not to look a gift horse in the mouth and all that mattered was that Oliver was here now, kissing her until she was giddy and all was absolutely right with the world.

_One Year Later_

“Did you know today is our anniversary?” Felicity said conversationally. Oliver looked over at her to where she sat on the other end of the sofa, lifting a brow.

“Which one?” he asked with a smirk. “Of when we met? Of when we started having sex? Of when we both got our heads out of our asses?”

“The last one,” she said. “Though I’m perfectly fine with celebrating three anniversaries a year.”

Oliver didn’t disagree. And, if he had his way, it would soon be four a year. There was a special little ring box in the back of the dresser drawer in their shared bedroom that he was just waiting for the right moment to bring out.

Felicity had moved in with him as soon as her lease was up on her apartment. It was a long couple of months though they weren’t often without each other during that time. Oliver’s place made the most sense for them both, given how close it was to work for them both and how large it was, giving them each space to spread out.

“Of course I knew,” he chided her gently. “In fact, I have some gifts.”

Felicity perked up at that. “I like presents.”

“I know you do. Hold on a sec, let me go get them.”

Oliver got up and went into their room. He used the restroom before he went to his dresser to retrieve the things he’d gathered to celebrate this day. He smiled as he looked at each gift, imagining her reaction. His hand hovered over the ring box. Was today the day?

When he returned to the living room, Felicity had turned down the lights and lit some candles. A couple of glasses of wine sat on the coffee table next to a couple of wrapped packages. He grinned.

“Presents for me?” he asked as he sat back down on the sofa.

“Of course,” she replied.

“Okay, but I get to go first.” He handed a handmade book of coupons. She looked surprised.

“Did you make this at work?” she asked.

“Without shame, yes.”

Chuckling, she leafed through. “Oliver, these are all for sex,” she said, laughing. “You’re giving me coupons for things I already get on the regular. C’mon, ‘One Earth Shattering Climax’? I got that this morning.”

“Yeah, you did,” he replied, smug.

“Shower sex? Try every other day? Sex in public? Need I remind you of the balcony at the Starling City Opera last month?”

“No, I remember pretty clearly.”What a night _that_ had been.

She kept thumbing through until she got to what he considered the real coupons. Her expression softened. “Oh,” she sighed. “Now these are nice. ‘A Kiss Under the Stars’, ‘Couple’s Massage’…. Oooh! ‘Good For One Couple’s Photo Session’! Oliver, you _never_ would have wanted to do these before. These are so sweet!”

“I know. But I want to do them with you now, because this is what I live for. The sex is nice, no lie, but being in this relationship with you right now? Getting to kiss you and do things together as a couple? That’s the best gift I could ever have.”

Felicity leaned forward and kissed him. Her fingers trailed along his face, scratching lightly at the scruff on his jaw. She drew back slowly, smiling into his eyes. “I love you, Oliver Queen.”

“And I love you too, Felicity Smoak.” He kissed her again, small, chaste, but also perfect. “I also have a little surprise, as part of your gift.”

He leaned behind him to where he’d stacked a small sheaf of papers. Smiling, he passed it to her. “I thought we could do a wine tasting together. In Napa.”

Felicity squealed with delight. “Wine Country! Oh, I’ve always wanted to go!”

“I know. I found this great place down there, they do a whole package. A lot of the things in that coupon book, we can do right there. If you want.”

“I absolutely want!” she cried. “Oh, I have to give you my presents now, or I’m going to burst.”

Oliver chuckled. “Okay, lay it on me.”

The first gift was a watch with a lovely leather band. “Your mother helped me pick it out, actually,” Felicity admitted. It did his heart well to see that his mom and Felicity had grown closer over the last year. Apparently, that also meant they were close enough to go shopping together. That delighted him to no end.

“It’s beautiful,” he murmured, running a finger over the face.

“The back is engraved.”

Oliver turned the watch over to see some script on the back of the face.

_You’re my Eurasian Beaver - FS_

He burst out laughing. “Do you like it?” she asked anxiously.

“I _love_ it. It’s perfect.”

Felicity beaming smile was blinding. “Yay! Okay, I have another gift too.”

It was a larger package that puzzled him until he unwrapped it and saw that it was a set of three frames, fused together. Each picture was of a map of the night sky, each slightly different from each other, with a date inscribed on a small plaque affixed to the bottom of each frame.

“What are these?” he asked. It was a gorgeous piece and he knew exactly where he wanted to hang it; right there in the living room where he could see it and enjoy it the most.

“They’re star maps. A map of the stars over Starling on three important dates,” she said. “The night after I first arrived in Starling and met you, the night we slept together for the first time and—“

“The night after that day at the zoo, where I told you I loved you.”

Felicity smiled. “And I told you I loved you too.”

“That was a good night,” he murmured, remembering. They’d thanked Donna and had dinner with her that evening and then Felicity’s mom had left them alone. They went back to his place and made love. Over and over and over again. It was the night he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

Oliver reached out to Felicity, cupping her cheek just like he’d done that day at the zoo. Felicity leaned into his touch, humming. “I have a question to ask you.”

“Hmm? What’s that? Is it about dinner? Because I was thinking of Amici’s, over on Third. We can do takeout or delivery if we want to stay in—“

God, he loved her. Why had he ever tried to hide it, tried to avoid it?“Not that kind of question.”

Felicity’s look turned questioning. In one fluid move, Oliver slipped off the sofa and onto his knees on the floor before her. He propped on of his feet onto the floor and reached into the pocket of the pants he was wearing. Her expression shifted as she watched him draw out the little black velvet box.

“Oliver!” she gasped. Tears filled her eyes immediately as he opened the box, displaying the shimmering platinum ring inside, set with a glittering diamond that made his eyes dance to look at it. With his other hand, he reached for one of hers and held it tightly.

“Felicity, I love you more every day. I think I must have started falling in love with you that first day, the first moment at the airport. I thought, all those months, ‘wow, she’s the best friend I’ve ever had.’ Because we got along so well, so easily. Everything was better with you. And then I realized it was so much more than friendship. I was afraid to lose you so I was dumb. I let you go. Then I fucked up even more. But you gave me another chance and I’m so grateful for that day. I want to spend the rest of my life just proving to you how much I love you. Will you give me that? Will you be my wife?”

Felicity choked out a sob, laughing a little as she brushed tears from her cheeks with her free hand. “Yes! Of course I will. Oliver, I love you so much.”

“I love you, too.”

She held her left hand out and Oliver slid the ring onto her finger, admiring how it glittered there before he stood up, bringing her with him. He swept her up into his arms, kissing her, sealing their engagement, and loving her with every inch of his being.

Forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, huge thank you to you all. If you could drop a comment and let me know what you think, I'd be eternally grateful. 💜

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments make my day 💜


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